{"id":12911,"date":"2025-09-04T12:04:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T12:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-sen-bill-cassidy-walks-a-tightrope-at-rfk-jr-s-hearing\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T12:04:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T12:04:25","slug":"capitol-agenda-sen-bill-cassidy-walks-a-tightrope-at-rfk-jr-s-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-sen-bill-cassidy-walks-a-tightrope-at-rfk-jr-s-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Sen. Bill Cassidy walks a tightrope at RFK Jr.’s hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before Senate Finance Thursday morning. You should be watching how Sen. Bill Cassidy questions him.<\/p>\n

Cassidy is walking a fine line<\/a> amid a tumultuous relationship with President Donald Trump. If Cassidy, a doctor, openly clashes with Kennedy, who recently pushed out a panel of vaccine experts and ousted the head of the CDC, that could imperil the Louisiana Republican\u2019s reelection hopes \u2014 which hinge on maintaining Trump\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

Cassidy voted to convict Trump in 2021 over Jan. 6 and has been largely cast aside by the Republican base since. But as 2026 comes into focus, Cassidy has stood firmly by the White House, highlighting his support for the president\u2019s nominees.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans have privately urged the president to endorse Cassidy. They see him as a diligent legislator and a team player.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely Trump will publicly support someone who voted to impeach him. But five Republicans granted anonymity to speak candidly told Blue Light News it\u2019s a real possibility that Trump could choose to remain silent.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I prefer his endorsement but if it\u2019s not an endorsement, neutral is probably the next best thing,\u201d Cassidy said.<\/p>\n

Who else we\u2019re watching in Thursday’s hearing: Republicans who no longer need a future Trump endorsement, notably Sen. Thom Tillis. The North Carolina lawmaker, who voted against Trump\u2019s megabill after announcing his retirement, could be more confrontational about the firing of Susan Monarez just a month after her confirmation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou worked with this CDC director for some number of months, then you decided to put her forth for confirmation, and then you fired her four weeks later. Why would we put a priority on replacing her if you determined within four weeks you made a bad decision after months of actually seeing her at work?\u201d Tillis told reporters on Wednesday. \u201cThat\u2019s a question I have for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 CR updates:<\/b> Appropriations Chairs Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) now want to pass three full-year bills funding the Department of Agriculture and the legislative branch plus military facility funding and veterans\u2019 programs, plus a short-term continuing resolution for the nine remaining bills. Top Democratic appropriators like Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state came out in support of the plan endorsed by Cole and Collins \u2014 as long as it\u2019s bipartisan.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Miran in the hot seat:<\/b> Senate Banking will consider Stephen Miran for a vacancy on the Federal Reserve board in a confirmation hearing Thursday. Expect intense debate over Trump\u2019s decision to fire Fed Gov. Lisa Cook, though Tillis \u2014 who is a pivotal swing vote and has said he would not consider a replacement for Cook until after her firing is litigated in court \u2014 told Blue Light News on Wednesday he is a \u201clean yes\u201d on Miran.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Codel heads to the border:<\/b> A bipartisan delegation of Problem Solvers Caucus members is heading to GOP Rep. Juan Ciscomani\u2019s Arizona district Thursday to tour the U.S.-Mexico border with Customs and Border Patrol, according to a person familiar with the plans. The group, led by Ciscomani and Democratic Rep. Jimmy Panetta of California, includes Democratic Reps. Tom Suozzi (N.Y.) and Jim Costa (Calif.) and GOP Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and Chuck Edwards (N.C.).<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney, Benjamin Guggenheim, Calen Razor and Jasper Goodman contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before Senate Finance Thursday morning. You should be watching how Sen. Bill Cassidy questions him. Cassidy is walking a fine line amid a tumultuous relationship with President Donald Trump. If Cassidy, a doctor, openly clashes with Kennedy, who recently pushed out a panel of vaccine experts and ousted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}