Dr. Bill Cassidy is the senior senator from Louisiana and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). He is the first physician to sit as HELP Ranking Member or Chairman since 1933, when it was called the Education and Labor Committee.
Dr. Cassidy has been a member of the HELP Committee since arriving to the Senate in 2015, and has been instrumental in prior committee efforts to lower the price of prescription drugs, prevent patients from receiving surprise medical bills, reform America’s mental health care system, address disparities in the health care field, increase access to in-school mental health services for students, and shield pregnant mothers from workplace discrimination. He has also engaged in extensive oversight of the administration and has sought to improve accountability and transparency into taxpayer-funded programs.
In addition to serving as the Ranking Member of the HELP Committee, Dr. Cassidy is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
Dr. Cassidy grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and attended Louisiana State University (LSU) for undergraduate and medical school. After his medical residency, Dr. Cassidy worked for over 25 years in the Louisiana charity hospital system to ensure Louisiana families could access quality health care, regardless of income. He also joined LSU Medical School teaching medical students and residents.
During this time, Dr. Cassidy co-founded the Greater Baton Rouge Community Clinic, a clinic providing free dental and health care to the working uninsured. He also created a private-public partnership to vaccinate 36,000 greater Baton Rouge area children against Hepatitis B at no cost to the schools or parents. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he 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 hurricane evacuees.
After serving in the Louisiana legislature, Dr. Cassidy was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2008 to represent Louisiana’s Sixth Congressional District, where he served on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In the House, he was influential in the passage of the legislation to address the nation’s obesity crisis and give Americans the power to make their own health care decisions.
He is married to Dr. Laura Cassidy and they have three children. Laura is a retired general surgeon specializing in breast cancer. She also helped found a public charter school in Louisiana specialized in teaching children with dyslexia. The Cassidy family attends church at the Chapel on the Campus in Baton Rouge.
