Kennedy, the Department of Health and Human Services nominee, is known as a vaccine skeptic, having lobbied against vaccine policies and for greater testing, and was heavily criticized throughout his presidential run for his public health stances.

Democratic state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal is leading the effort, rebranding the bill as the Registry for Keeping Justified Records Act, also known as the RFK Jr. Act. The bill will require healthcare providers in New York to report the immunizations of people 19 and older to the state Department of Health.

The effort would likely help the state maintain records on immunizations and see where the state lacks in its vaccine outreach.

“Our statewide vaccine infrastructure is more important than ever as we face the threat of vaccine skeptics like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. taking the helm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and dictating vaccine policy at the federal level,” Hoylman-Sigal told Politico.

Kennedy has strong connections to the state of New York. He worked in New York City as an assistant district attorney in the borough of Manhattan for a short time before working as an environmental attorney in the area for years.

In 2019, he appeared at an anti-vaccine rally blasting legislation that ended a religious exemption for vaccinations. “How can we as a society, as a government, be mandating a product for our children when we can’t tell them the risks?” Kennedy said then.

“Unlike Kennedy, New Yorkers trust the scientific research that shows immunizations are essential to the primary prevention of disease from infancy through adulthood,” Hoylman-Sigal said.

Kennedy has said he doesn’t want to take vaccines away, though he will have the power to sway the government’s choices over them if he is confirmed as HHS secretary.

He does want further review on vaccines and has hired a lawyer who petitioned the government to withdraw the polio vaccine, among others.