Sebelius Out, Burwell In: A New Secretary to Lead the Department of Health and Human Services (Federal)
The following article is breaking news on the Health Care Policy Report:
The Senate June 5 voted 78-17 to confirm Sylvia Mathews Burwell as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Republicans who voted against the nomination included Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who in an earlier floor statement compared voting for the nomination to appointing a “new captain for the Titanic.” Other Republicans who voted against the nomination included Roy Blunt (Mo.), Ted Cruz (Texas), John Cornyn (Texas), Pat Roberts (Kan.) and John Thune (S.D.).
In urging his colleagues to vote in favor of the nomination, Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said that Burwell enjoys bipartisan support and that Republicans and Democrats will need to work together to ensure the future of Medicare.
Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget, will replace Kathleen Sebelius, who announced her resignation in April but agreed to stay on until a successor is confirmed.
Burwell has sailed through Senate committee hearings and a committee vote, and easily passed a procedural vote June 4 when 14 Republicans voted with Democrats, 67-28, to end debate on the nomination.
Posted on June 5, 2014, in "Single State Agency", DHHS Press Release, Federal Government, HHS, Medicaid, Medicaid Attorney, Medicare, Medicare Attorney, NC DHHS, Washington D.C. and tagged Burwell, HHS, Medicaid, Medicaid Attorney, Medicare, Medicare Attorney, NC DHHS, Office of Management and Budget, Secretary, Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services, Secretary Sebelius, Senate, Senate Finance Committee, Sylvia Burwell. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
I’m going to butcher a James Madison quote here, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress to spend enough money to get me to take this job at this time.”
Would I be willing to take this job 10 years from now? Maybe.
20 years? Probably.
Now? No way.
This person could do the best job in all of creation and still be pilloried for it. I strongly suspect she will end up wishing she got “only” the lambasting that John Jay did for the Jay Treaty.