President Donald Trump's new appointee to head US Human and Health Services, Robert F. Kennedy, is likely to make some changes to Medicaid, his testimony to the Senate Finance Committee revealed Wednesday.

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

The Medicaid website was down, but the portal was expected to be back up shortly, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She wrote on X that no payments had been affected and that they were still being processed and sent.

At least 20 states were unable to draw funds from an HHS payment system hours after the White House ordered a pause on the disbursement of grants and loans.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -At least three U.S. lawmakers said on Tuesday healthcare providers were blocked from the Medicaid payment portal after the Trump administration announced a federal funding pause, even as the White House said the program was exempted.

Chief among congressional Republicans’ priorities is an extension of the 2017 tax law, most of which is set to expire at the end of the year. A full extension is projected to cost about $4.6 trillion over the next 10 years by renewing tax rate cuts for individuals. Any other costs listed below would be on top of that amount.

After President Donald Trump ordered a freeze on federal grants and loans, Medicaid's portals went down Tuesday afternoon, causing recipients to panic about their health insurance coverage. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the Medicaid outage Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter, but said payments would not be impacted.

North Carolina is another state prone to hurricanes—and in fact Hurricane Helene last fall triggered a Biden administration recovery effort led by Deanne Criswell, the impeccably qualified and unanimously confirmed director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There were no conditions attached, but here are two that would have been nice.

Trump’s haphazard attempt to impose a sweeping freeze on federal aid across the government awakened Democrats into furious opposition.

No Republicans have said publicly they would oppose Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run Health and Human Services. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), a polio survivor, and centrist Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are considered possible defectors.