As we've been reporting, confusion remains around a memo from the Office of Management and Budget that announced a funding freeze on federal assistance earlier this week.

According to reporting from our US partner CBS News, White House officials believe that the first memo did what it needed to do - and that agencies are now aware that funding needs to align with Trump's executive orders from his first week in office.

As a reminder, the White House has said the rescission relates not to the freeze itself - but to the memo detailing the freeze.

Image source, Reuters

Away from RFK Jr's first confirmation hearing, there's been some movement on the funding freeze that had been proposed by the Trump administration on federal assistance.

Earlier this week, a leaked memo indicated a funding freeze would come into effect on Tuesday, pausing federal grants, loans and other financial assistance programmes. Exactly which programmes would be affected was not clear.

Later on Tuesday, a Judge blocked the order - saying no such freeze could be implemented before 3 February.

Within the last hour, we've seen a new memo which appears to rescind the initial memorandum.

The situation still remains slightly unclear, though, with Trump's Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posting on X in the last hour that this is "NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo".

We'll have more on this shortly so stay with us.

Mike Wendling
US digital reporter

In a testy exchange with Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, RFK Jr declined to say earlier if he would stop personally taking a cut of lawsuits he's helped to file against drug companies.

In a financial statement provided to Congress, external, RFK Jr reported he was paid around $850,000 (£680,000) last year by a law firm suing pharmaceutical company Merck, which is facing allegations over a HPV vaccine.

President Trump's health secretary pick makes millions - around $8.8m a year - from his own law firm, which is involved in a variety of cases not limited to suits against healthcare companies. He's pledged to stop collecting fees from any lawsuits involving the US government.

Under questioning from Warren, Kennedy also said he wouldn’t take money from drug companies and got a laugh from audience members when he suggested such firms weren't lining up to pay him.

However, he does have smaller interests in two drug companies, according to his financial statement: CRISPR Therapeutics and Dragonfly Therapeutics. He has said he would divest himself from those companies, and a variety of other financial interests, if confirmed as US health secretary.

Image source, EPA

Having just completed his confirmation hearing for the Senate's finance committee, tomorrow RFK Jr will go before the health, education, labour and pensions committee for the same process.

As we've reported, the committees will then need to vote on his nomination for it to pass to the whole Senate for consideration.

As proceedings were ending a short time ago, Republican Senator and Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo apologised for rushing the hearing towards the end and thanked RFK Jr for his appearance.

"I think you have come through well, and deserve to be confirmed," he told RFK Jr.

Senators are given a 17:00 local time (22:00 GMT) deadline for submitting any further questions they may have about RFK Jr's nomination, which he must them respond to as quickly as possible.

Crapo ended the session by saying: "Mr Kennedy, I look forward to working with you".

• For context: Before RFK Jr can be confirmed as Donald Trump's health secretary, he'll face another hearing tomorrow and senators will then vote on whether they think he should assume the role. Get up to speed with how the process of being confirmed works.

Rachel Looker
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Image source, Reuters

The hearing has now concluded after three and a half hours.

Kennedy exited the room surrounded by his friends and family.

He was met with a standing ovation form the crowd and more cheers of "We love you!"

One woman yelled "We love you Bobby".

We're continuing to bring you the key lines from RFK Jr's confirmation hearing, as he hopes to become President Trump's health secretary. You can watch it live at the top of this page.

Democratic Senator Peter Welch tells RFK Jr that whether he's confirmed does not just rest on his answers to Senate, but also his experience and background.

He touches on a letter, released on Tuesday by RFK Jr's cousin, in which she brands him a "predator" and says he's unqualified for this government role.

Welch further asks RFK Jr about federal funding freezes earlier this week.

RFK Jr responds by saying his job will be to "uphold the constitution" and "administer the law". He doesn't comment on his cousin's letter.

There's more now from Young, a Republican Senator, who says that in "recent years" - particularly during the Covid pandemic - there has been a lot of scepticism about public health institutions.

Some of that scepticism is warranted, he says, but it's created a "pervasive lack of trust from the public" - and he asks how RFK Jr would restore that trust.

President Trump's pick for health secretary responds:

"Through radical transparency.

"The reason people don't trust the public health agencies is because they haven't been trustworthy."

Image source, Reuters

We're now hearing RFK Jr asked what he means when he says government scientists need to adhere to the "gold standard" he and President Trump have said health agencies need.

"Real scientific research with replication of studies," RFJ Jr replies - claiming that currently it happens "very rarely" at the National Institute of Health (NIH).

He says government scientists need to "make sure all the science is published with raw data [and] make sure peer reviews are published".

"We need to have replicable science and be completely transparent about data," RFK Jr tells Republican Senator Todd Young.

Tina Smith, a Democratic senator, moves on to what she describes as a mental health "crisis" in the US - showing an old quote from RFK Jr about school shootings beginning to happen "co-terminus" with the introduction of antidepressants.

RFK Jr tells her that he said the link should be studied "along with other culprits", to which Smith replies that the science shows there is no link.

"Do you think people who take antidepressants are dangerous?" she asks. He responds that he would not be going into the health department to impose any "preconceived ideas", referring once more to "good science".

Asked then about his previous descriptions of those who take mental health medication as "addicts", he cites family members who have struggled to come off selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) - a common medication for depression.

Next up, Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock asks RFK Jr if he thinks the work of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is critical.

"Yes, senator," he replies.

Warnock then asks RFK Jr if he stands by certain statements he's made about the CDC - such as comparing them to "Nazi death camps" and "sexual abusers in the Catholic church", as well as saying many CDC workers belong in jail.

Trump's nominee denies having compared the CDC to Nazi death camps, saying he supports the agency, at which point Warnock reads out a transcript which contains the statements he's just quoted.

RFK Jr pushes back - saying he was comparing the injury rate of children to "other atrocities" and doesn't agree with the interpretations that suggest otherwise: "My objective is to support the CDC... I want to make sure our science is gold standard."

RFK Jr has faced a grilling from a number of senators during a confirmation hearing to become Donald Trump's health secretary.

With questions now resuming after a short break, here's a few things we've learnt so far:

• RFK Jr's opening statement leant on the theme of public service and "making America healthy again" - he also touched on Trump's "genuine care" around high rates of chronic illness
• Asked about nutrition-based disease prevention, RFK Jr reflected on the difference in the health of the population between the time he was growing up and now, suggesting the US is "writing off an entire generation of kids"
• Quizzed on his stance on vaccines, RFK Jr engaged in a fiery back and forth with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden - insisting the claim he is anti-vaccine has been "debunked"
• Upon denying being anti-vaccine, a protester shouted "you lie" and was removed from the room - a second protester followed soon after
• Presented with a number of opinions he'd reportedly voiced in the past, RFK Jr denied saying exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender but agreed he'd "probably" said Lyme disease is likely a militarily engineered bioweapon
• Meanwhile, he told the Senate that tackling substance abuse will be a "priority" if he is confirmed in the role - and that he'd work to protect farmers' rights

Image source, Reuters

That short break was true to its name.

We're back and will continueto bring you the key lines from RFK Jr's confirmation hearing, as he hopes to become President Trump's health secretary.

Remember, you can watch it live at the top of this page.

Rachel Looker
Reporting from Capitol Hill

We've been told to enjoy a five-minute bathroom break.

RFK Jr exits the room to cheers of "We love you!", as well as loud applause from members of the audience.

There are just a handful of senators left to question Kennedy when we return. Stick with us.

Marsha Blackburn, a Republican senator, tells RFK Jr she has "no doubt" that he will be confirmed as US health secretary and that he will do "such a solid job" for Americans.

She asks for commitments on rural healthcare, which RFK Jr agrees is "in crisis".

Asked specifically about area wage index - which indicates an area's average hourly wage to the national equivalent - RFK Jr says he will work with Blackburn to make regional price points "sensible".

The pair turn to overmedicating young people, with RFK Jr citing ADHD and depression medication statistics.

He wants more community health initiatives, better food and exercise promoted to help the situation, he says.

Rachel Looker
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Image source, Reuters

Senator Sanders - an independent - is demanding an answer from Kennedy on whether he supports baby clothes bearing anti-vaccine slogans.

Some are sold by the Children's Health Defense, an organisation Kennedy founded, Sanders says.

"Are you supportive of these onesies?" Sanders asks Kennedy.

Kennedy responds that he has no oversight of the organisation and resigned from his position there.

"Are you supportive of these onesies?" Sanders pushes back, raising his voice.

The exchange draws laughter and some applause from the audience.

We're continuing to bring you the key lines from RFK Jr's confirmation hearing, as he hopes to become President Trump's health secretary. You can watch it live at the top of this page.

Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders, a longtime advocate of universal health care, now asks RFK Jr for a simple yes-or-no response to whether the US should "guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right".

RFK Jr says he can't answer the question so simply - and goes on to pose the hypothetical situation of a 20-year cigarette smoker getting lung cancer and whether they should have the same access to healthcare as someone who doesn't smoke. The smoker would be "taking from the pool," he says.

Sanders then goes on to criticise the pharmaceutical industry, saying that the US pays more for the same drugs than Europe, and asks RFK Jr if he's willing to "end that absurdity".

RFK Jr replies: "We should end that disparity."

Next up, Republican Senator Thom Tillis asks RFK Jr if he's a "conspiracy theorist", to which Trump's nominee responds:

"That's a pejorative that's applied to me to keep me from asking difficult questions about powerful interests."

RFK Jr says he was labelled a conspiracy theorist because he said the Covid-19 vaccines "didn't prevent transmission and wouldn't prevent infection" when the government "was telling people that it would".

There's more now from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who continues on the theme of vaccine scepticism - listing all the ways RFK Jr may be able to influence lawsuits if he is confirmed in this role.

She says this includes the potential to publish anti-vaccine conspiracies on paper with government letterheads, and changing vaccine labelling and information rules.

RFK Jr says, if confirmed as US health secretary, he will comply with all the guidelines - but Warren cuts in to say Kennedy would be able to "kill access to vaccines" and "make millions" while he does it.

He says the only thing he wants is "good science".