(Photo from White House livestream)
- Senator Hyde-Smith was in the Oval Office with President Trump on Tuesday for the signing of appropriations bills.
Mississippi U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) joined fellow lawmakers for a White House signing ceremony for the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations package in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump (R) turned to the Mississippi senator and said, “Cindy Hyde, come on. Say something.”
“There’s a little hospital in [the package], a rural hospital Meadville, Mississippi, called Franklin County Hospital. It would have closed the end of this month without this bill,” Hyde-Smith told the President. “Thank you, thank you from everybody in Mississippi, especially Franklin County.”
Trump responded by adding, “We’ve covered the rural very well, nobody ever thought it was possible because we had a lot of opposition from the Democrats, as you know.”
The legislation signed into law Tuesday includes language in the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill to reinstate the Critical Access Hospital (CAH) designation for the Franklin County Hospital, which Hyde-Smith noted the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rescinded on January 15.
Resending the CAH designation for the Franklin County Hospital meant it would no longer be eligible for federal resources intended to help sustain the financial viability of rural hospitals and assure access to essential medical services, the senator noted.
Hyde-Smith, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, helped craft the funding package. She said in a statement after the signing that there is still work to do “to improve rural healthcare in Mississippi, but I’m very happy that we’ve acted to help the Franklin County Hospital and give it a stronger chance to be on a stronger financial footing.”
“Without this, the hospital could have closed. CMS dropping the critical access status wasn’t warranted and we’ve come up with a sensible solution to ensure continued access to quality rural healthcare there and for other hospitals in that situation,” said Hyde-Smith.
Frank Corder
