President Obama now has a Health and Human Services secretary to help shepherd his ambitious health reform agenda through Congress and deal with emerging problems like the swine flu outbreak.
In a 65-31 vote, the Senate confirmed Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, as HHS secretary on April 28. Under an agreement reached between Senate Democrats and Republicans, 60 votes were required for confirmation. She is the last member of President Obama's cabinet to be confirmed by the Senate. Gov. Sebelius was sworn in later that day at the White House and was immediately briefed on the swine flu situation by Homeland Security officials.
Gov. Sebelius, a two-term governor and former state insurance commissioner, has been praised for her bipartisan approach to governing in Kansas. However, her confirmation was initially slowed in the Senate over conservatives' concerns about her position on abortion. For example, antiabortion advocates called her unfit for the HHS post after she vetoed controversial state legislation that would have increased reporting requirements on late-term abortions and left physicians who perform abortions open to civil litigation if the abortion was later deemed illegal.
The American Medical Association praised Gov. Sebelius for her work to expand health coverage to children in Kansas, as well as for the role she played in blocking a major insurance merger in her state.