The Louisiana senator didn’t seem too convinced by Kennedy’s answers Wednesday, but he’ll have a second opportunity to question him Thursday in a HELP hearing.
In his first confirmation hearing, Kennedy, President Trump’s nominee to be Health and Human Services secretary, faced an intense grilling from Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, who held his feet to the fire regarding several of often-controversial health views.
But it was a line of detailed questions from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a doctor, that seemed to trip Kennedy up the most.
When asked about how he’d oversee Medicare and Medicaid, Kennedy seemed to confuse the two. The programs together are responsible for covering more than 150 million Americans.
Kennedy described Medicaid as “fully paid for by the federal government,” but it is actually financed by a mix of state and federal funding. He had vague answers on Medicaid reforms, saying he supported changes to “increase transparency” and “increase accountability.”
Cassidy asked Kennedy more than a few times for specific policy ideas he had for reforming Medicaid under Trump. When he asked Kennedy how he proposed integrating Medicare and Medicaid, the HHS nominee admitted, “I'm not exactly sure, because I'm not in there.”
Earlier this month, Cassidy said he had a “frank conversation” with Kennedy during which they spoke about “vaccines at length.” Cassidy has publicized his disagreement with Kennedy’s stance on vaccines, saying on Fox News that he believed Kennedy is “wrong” on vaccinations.
Following his first hearing, Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.), one of the only Democrats who may have been open to voting for Kennedy, said the nomination could be “moot.”
“I’m not really sure how much support’s going to emerge after that,” said Fetterman.
