U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, asked non-confrontational questions about challenges facing rural health care at a jam-packed confirmation hearing held Wednesday for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
After the three-and-a-half hour hearing, which was briefly disrupted by a protester, Barrasso announced he will vote for President Donald Trump’s embattled pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. That’s consistent with the senator’s recent appearance on the CBS News program Face the Nation, in which he said he supports all of Trump’s nominees
Kennedy was undergoing questioning before the Senate Finance Committee, of which Barrasso, a physician, is a member. A second committee, which shares Senate oversight of HHS, was due to hold its hearing on Kennedy on Thursday.
Neither Barrasso nor Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, sit on the other panel — the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Both committees will hold votes on whether to advance the nomination to the full Senate.
Lummis has expressed her backing of Kennedy on social media and has joined an informal Senate caucus called Make America Healthy Again. That is a pro-RFK Jr. slogan that adorned the hats and T-shirts of dozens of supporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
Few of them — as with Kennedy opponents who showed up — could actually get into the hearing room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building or even an overflow room two floors up with a live video feed.
To enter the building, visitors went through metal detectors, which is standard protocol.
Too late to get a seat in either room, many people simply milled about the hallways amid scores of reporters, photographers and police officers.
The law enforcement presence was higher than normal, but the atmosphere was generally calm, though a protester was led out of the hearing room.
She shouted as Kennedy was telling senators he is not anti-vaccine.
The MAHA phrase reflects Kennedy’s holistic approach to health, such as good nutrition and primary health care availability to combat chronic illnesses. But some of his critics showed up Wednesday wearing shirts saying Make Polio Great Again — a reference to the dangers that some perceive regarding Kennedy’s views on vaccines.
Vaccines, Medicaid
Senators’ questioning of Kennedy on Wednesday fell largely along party lines — praise from Republicans and condemnation from Democrats. But on both sides of the aisle, some senators took mixed, nuanced views toward the environmental lawyer and corporation watchdog.
While Republicans have the votes to push Kennedy’s confirmation through, opponents took their shots Wednesday, targeting his stance on vaccines and Medicaid, among other issues.
After Kennedy told the committee he’s not an anti-vaxxer and is instead “pro-safety,” the top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, questioned him about claims that vaccines aren’t safe and that he later regretted allowing his own children to be vaccinated.
“Mr. Kennedy, all of these things cannot be true,” Wyden said. “So, are you lying to Congress today when you say you are pro-vaccine, or did you lie on all those podcasts?”
He also was grilled on Medicaid, about which the nominee said he doesn’t have any specific plans “for dismantling the program,” but adding that many Americans are frustrated with the system.
“Most people who are on Medicaid are not happy,” he said, adding that Medicaid’s track record is beyond bad.
“Do you think all that money, the $900 billion that we’re sending to Medicaid every year, has made Americans healthy?” he asked. “Do we think it’s working for anybody? Are the premiums low enough?”
Kennedy also reaffirmed his stance on abortion as aligning with Trump’s, that it should be left up to states to deal with.
Barrasso’s Turn
When Barrasso had a turn to question Kennedy, rather than tackle high-profile issues such as vaccines or abortion, he asked about problems such as staffing shortages facing hospitals and nursing homes in rural America.
The second-ranking Republican in the Senate, Barrasso alluded to a meeting with Kennedy before the hearing.
“During our meeting, we discussed the challenges that health care providers and patients are facing in rural America: financial obstacles facing rural hospitals, workforce shortages, issues of OB/GYN and the new regulations that are painful that have come out of the Biden administration, hurting our ability to provide nursing home staffing,” Barrasso told Kennedy at the hearing, securing a pledge from the nominee to work with him on those matters.
Barrasso said many of Wyoming’s 33 hospitals are difficult to get to, especially in severe weather, and six of them are “at risk of closing.”
“Two of them are at immediate risk of closing in the next two years,” he said. “Ten of them have had to cut available services.”
He did not name any of the hospitals.
Maternity Care
Kennedy agreed that rural hospitals are closing at an “extraordinary rate.” He said AI and telemedicine could help alleviate the closures.
Barrasso cited maternity services in particular as threatened.
“Now we have women in Wyoming having to drive over a hundred miles to access care,” he said.
Barrasso went on to fault a Biden administration rule that he said “would triple the registered nurse requirements in nursing homes.”
“There just aren’t enough registered nurses in our state to comply with this,” Barrasso said. “This would lead to nursing home closures across our state.”
Kennedy said the rule was “well-intentioned” but agreed with Barrasso that it would be a “disaster” for rural states.
Barrasso was not immediately available for comment after the hearing but posted to X about Kennedy: “He has my vote.”
On Tuesday, Lummis posted on X: “I hear from more people about their support for RFK than any other [Cabinet nominee].
“There is broad consensus and optimism from Americans (especially mothers) about what this man will accomplish for America — particularly the health of America’s legacy, our kids!”
If confirmed, Kennedy would oversee a sprawling department that includes the agency in charge of Medicare and Medicaid. It includes the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and scores of other agencies.
