WASHINGTON — A top Senate Republican is holding up the confirmation of President Biden’s nominee to lead Medicare and Medicaid, he told STAT.
In a brief interview, Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) said he had placed a hold on the confirmation of Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the pending administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, using a phrase that refers to a senators’ ability to temporarily block a nomination from advancing to a vote. His opposition, he said, stems from the Biden administration’s recent rejection of Texas’ request to extend its Medicaid waiver, which the Trump administration had previously approved.
“I met with her one day about the 1115 waiver, and said how important it was to my state,” Cornyn told STAT in an interview, referring to the Trump-approved funding agreement, which helped to reimburse the state’s hospitals for care given to uninsured patients. “Then the next day, the Biden administration rescinded it, and it’s completely in bad faith and irresponsible.”
