Bill Cassidy

Early life, education and career

William Morgan Cassidy was born in Highland Park, Illinois, one of four sons born to Elizabeth and James F. Cassidy, and is of Irish and Welsh descent. He received a B.S. Degree in 1979 from Louisiana State University and an M.D. from LSU School of Medicine in 1983. Cassidy specialized in the treatment of diseases of the liver at the Earl K. Long Medical Center (LSUMC). His wife, Laura (née Layden), is also a physician; they met as medical residents in Los Angeles. In the early 1990s, both worked at the Earl K. Long Medical Center, where Laura was the hospital's head of surgery. Cassidy, worked as a gastroenterologist at the facility until it closed in 2013. The couple has three children. They are members of The Chapel on the Campus, a nondenominational Christian Church that meets on LSU's campus in Baton Rouge.

In 1998, Cassidy helped found the Greater Baton Rouge Community Clinic to provide uninsured residents of the greater Baton Rouge area with access to free health care. The Clinic provides low-income families with free dental, medical, mental health and vision care through a "virtual" approach that partners needy patients with doctors who provide care free of charge.

Cassidy has also been involved in setting up the nonprofit Health Centers in Schools, which vaccinates children in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System against Hepatitis B and flu.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Cassidy led a group of health care volunteers to convert an abandoned K-Mart building into an emergency health care facility, providing basic health care to victims of the hurricane.

Early political career

Cassidy was first elected to the Louisiana State Senate in 2006 as a Republican. He had previously been a Democrat: Cassidy supported Michael Dukakis for president in 1988 and donated to the 1992 presidential campaign of Senator Paul Tsongas (D-MA), and to Louisiana Democrats Kathleen Blanco in the 2003 gubernatorial election and Mary Landrieu in her 2002 Senate campaign. In 2013, Cassidy called his donation to Landrieu a "youthful indiscretion," saying that she "got elected and fell into partisan politics... Louisiana hasn't left Mary, Mary has left us." Since 2001, he has mostly contributed to Republican candidates, including Senator David Vitter. According to Cassidy, he switched parties after the extinction of conservative Democrats and because of his frustration with the bureaucracy and inefficiency of the public hospital system.

On December 9, 2006, Cassidy won a special election for the District 16 seat in the Louisiana Senate. In his first bid for public office, Cassidy defeated veteran State Representative William Daniel, a fellow Republican, and Libertarian candidate S.B. Zaitoon. The election was held to replace Jay Dardenne, who vacated the seat he had held since 1992 upon his election as Louisiana Secretary of State. Cassidy was sworn in on December 20, 2006. On October 20, 2007, Cassidy was reelected, this time to a full four-year term in the Louisiana State Senate. Cassidy received 76% of the vote against Republican Troy "Rocco" Moreau (15%) and Libertarian Richard Fontanesi (9%).

Elections

On November 4, 2008, Cassidy was elected to serve Louisiana's 6th district in the U.S. House of Representatives, defeating incumbent Democratic Congressman Don Cazayoux with 48% of the vote. He likely owed his victory to the independent candidacy of state representative Michael L. Jackson. Jackson, who is African-American, finished third with 36,100 votes, more than the 25,000-vote margin separating Cassidy and Cazayoux.

In the 2010 midterm elections, Cassidy easily won a second term, defeating Democrat Merritt E. McDonald of Baton Rouge with 66% of the vote. In the 2012 election, Cassidy was reelected again, defeating Rufus Holt Craig, Jr., a Libertarian, and Richard Torregano, an Independent. Cassidy received 79% of the vote.

Tenure

In May 2009, Cassidy partnered with California Representative Jackie Speier to introduce legislation that would amend the House of Representatives rules to require that members of Congress list their earmark requests on their Congressional websites. Previous earmark reform efforts had focused on disclosure of earmarks that were funded by Congress. In June 2010, he introduced the Gulf Coast Jobs Preservation Act to terminate the moratorium on deep water drilling and require the Secretary of the Interior to ensure the safety of deep water drilling operations. He worked to ensure that money from the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund, which was established in the wake of the BP oil spill, is spent on coastal restoration efforts.

In December 2010, Cassidy voted to extend the tax cuts enacted during the administration of President George W. Bush. He voted for the Constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment of 2011.

In May 2013, Cassidy introduced the Energy Consumers Relief Act of 2013 (H.R. 1582) to require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to submit reports to both the United States Congress and the United States Department of Energy regarding proposed regulation that would have significant compliance costs (an impact of over $1 billion). The Department of Energy and Congress would then have the option of stopping or altering the EPA proposal.

In 2013, due to the American Medical Association's decision to officially recognize obesity as a disease, Senators and Representatives, including Cassidy, helped introduce legislation to lower health care costs and prevent chronic diseases by addressing America's growing obesity crisis. Cassidy said the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act could help empower physicians to use all methods and means to fight the condition.

In June 2013, Cassidy supported a House-passed bill that federally banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Also in 2013, Cassidy circulated a draft letter opposing an immigration reform bill, asking for signatures. Representative Mark Takano, a high school literature teacher for 23 years, marked it up in red pen like a school assignment and gave it an F, with comments like, "exaggeration -- avoid hyperbole," and "contradicts earlier statement."

In 2014 Cassidy co-sponsored an amendment to the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act in 2014 to limit annual premium increases for flood insurance, reinstate the flood insurance program's grandfathering provision, and eliminate a provision that required an increase to actuarial levels when a home is sold.

Cassidy was a vocal opponent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly called Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act), arguing that it would fail to lower costs and give too much decision-making authority to the federal government. In September 2014, the House passed the Employee Health Care Protection Act of 2013 (H.R. 3522; 113th Congress), sponsored by Cassidy, enabling Americans to keep health insurance policies that do not meet all of the Affordable Care Act's requirements. In March 2017, Cassidy sent a letter to one of his constituents that falsely asserted that Obamacare "allows a presidentially handpicked ‘Health Choices Commissioner’ to determine what coverage and treatments are available to you."

Cassidy supported the Lowering Gasoline Prices to Fuel an America That Works Act of 2014 (H.R. 4899; 113th Congress), a bill to revise existing laws regarding the development of oil and gas resources on the Outer Continental Shelf. The bill is intended to increase domestic energy production and lower gas prices. He argued that the bill "would allow us to take advantage of our natural resources and expands our energy manufacturing and construction industries."

Committee assignments (113th Congress)

Caucuses

While in the House of representatives, Cassidy was a member of many congressional caucuses, including the House Tea Party Caucus and Republican Study Committee.

Committee assignments

2014 U.S. Senate election

Cassidy ran for the U.S. Senate in the 2014 election, in which he was endorsed by Republican Senator David Vitter. He defeated three-term incumbent Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu in the run-off election held on Saturday, December 6, 2014, receiving 56% of the vote to Landrieu's 44%. It was the first Republican victory for the seat since William P. Kellogg in 1883.

Tenure

On May 8, 2017, Cassidy appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to discuss health care in the United States. He said that any legislation that he would support must meet the "Jimmy Kimmel test", namely: “Would a child born with congenital heart disease be able to get everything he or she would need in that first year of life?” Kimmel had earlier chastised Republicans for voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with legislation that would not ensure protection for children such as his newborn, who was born with a heart defect that required immediate surgery.

In September 2017, Cassidy and Lindsey Graham introduced legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The "Graham-Cassidy" bill would eliminate the ACA's marketplace subsidies, repeal the ACA's Medicaid expansion, and introduce a temporary block grant that would expire in 2026. The legislation would also impose a per-enrollee cap on Medicaid funding. The Kaiser Family Foundation noted that the legislation "would fundamentally alter the current federal approach to financing health coverage for more than 80 million people who have coverage through the ACA (Medicaid expansion or marketplace) or through the traditional Medicaid program." An analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities found that the legislation "would cut federal health care funding by $299 billion relative to current law" in the year 2027 alone and estimated that it would leave 32 million more Americans without health insurance. President Donald Trump endorsed the bill. The bill does not meet the "Jimmy Kimmel test", as it would allow states to eliminate requirements to cover children with conditions like that of Kimmel's child. Kimmel condemned Cassidy, calling him a liar, listed the health organizations that opposed Graham-Cassidy, and urged his viewers to contact their Congressional representatives about the legislation. Cassidy responded to Kimmel, saying that Kimmel "doesn't understand" the legislation. Cassidy also said that under Graham-Cassidy, "more people will have coverage" than under the Affordable Care Act. According to the Washington Post fact checker, Cassidy "provided little evidence to support his claim of more coverage... the consensus [among health care analysts] is that his funding formula makes his claim all but impossible to achieve."

United States Senate, Louisiana (2014)

Runoff election, December 6, 2014

General election, November 4, 2014

United States House of Representatives, 6th District of Louisiana (2012)

General election, November 6, 2012

United States House of Representatives, 6th District of Louisiana (2010)

General election, November 2, 2010

United States House of Representatives, 6th District of Louisiana (2008)

General election, November 4, 2008

Louisiana State Senate, District 16 (2007)

Threshold: 50%

First ballot, October 20, 2007

Louisiana State Senate, District 16 (2006)

Threshold: 50%

First ballot, December 9, 2006