Kyra Kennedy, 29, is the youngest daughter of health secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy's condition is called spasmodic dysphonia, which is a neurologic disorder that can affect the voice and speech by causing the muscles that generate a person’s voice to go into periods of spasm, according to Penn Medicine. It is a lifelong condition, but can be improved with treatment in some cases, according to Penn Medicine.

As he seeks to lead the health department, Mr. Kennedy wore a thin tie dotted with feathered creatures to cap a classic suit.

If approved, Kennedy will control a $1.7 trillion agency that oversees food and hospital inspections, hundreds of health clinics, vaccine recommendations and health insurance for roughly half the country.

Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy is the eldest daughter of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who could be confirmed as health secretary in Trump's administration.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former presidential candidate and environmental activist, endorsed Donald Trump last year and threw his weight behind a campaign to “Make America Healthy Again.” For the past two decades he has been best known for airing skeptical views on vaccines.

Sanders, the senior minority party member on the committee, pressed Kennedy to concede that health care was a human right, as his father, Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncles, John F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, had done. Kennedy again did not give a definitive answer.

RFK Jr. claimed he is not “anti-vaccine” and appeared unfamiliar with key aspects of healthcare insurance programs in his confirmation hearing.