BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Sen. Bill Cassidy has emerged as a central figure in the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose nomination to health and human services secretary poses an equally consequential moment for the second-term Republican facing an uncertain political future in Louisiana.

Sanders, the senior minority party member on the committee, pressed Kennedy to concede that health care was a human right, as his father, Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncles, John F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, had done. Kennedy again did not give a definitive answer.

The GOP senator and former physician expressed misgivings about whether Trump’s controversial HHS pick could be trusted with the public’s health.

Click in for more news from The Hill{beacon} Health Care Health Care   The Big Story All eyes on Cassidy for second RFK Jr. hearing Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate

While Democrats blasted Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for previous comments on vaccines and some Republicans teed him up for stump speeches, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana mostly stuck

If approved, Kennedy will control a $1.7 trillion agency that oversees food and hospital inspections, hundreds of health clinics, vaccine recommendations and health insurance for roughly half the country.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has urged the U.S. Senate — including specifically Sen. Bill Cassidy, a fellow Republican from Louisiana — to support Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Here's when and where Robert F. Kennedy will get his first hearing as President Trump's nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services.

Kennedy, tapped by Trump to lead HHS, struggled to ease concerns held by on-the-fence GOP senators over his long history of vaccine skepticism.

Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician and key G.O.P. vote, joined Democrats in aggressively questioning Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s pick for health secretary. He did not say how he would vote.

WASHINGTON — Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy asked Thursday that health chief nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. put aside his decades-old questioning of vaccinations and promote immunizations should he be con