Sebelius confirmation vote set for Tuesday

Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Kathleen Sebelius will get her confirmation vote on the Senate floor under an agreement reached between Democratic and Republican leaders, a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday night.

Starting Tuesday morning, the Senate will begin six to eight hours of floor debate on whether to vote on whether to confirm Kansas Gov. Sebelius (D) to President Obama’s Cabinet. Senate Republicans are insisting on a cloture vote on moving to confirmation, meaning that at least 60 senators will have to vote in Sebelius’s favor to clear the way for a final vote.

The numbers strongly favor Sebelius’s eventual confirmation. The Senate Finance Committee recommended her confirmation, 15-8, Tuesday. Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Pat Roberts (Kansas) voted with the Democrats in commitee.

Most Senate Republicans, backed by anti-abortion-rights activists, are prepared to oppose her but nearly all Democrats, including those who oppose abortion-rights, and several Republicans are on record supporting her confirmation, so the 60-plus votes needed to secure cloture appear to be at hand.

Meanwhile, in a move certain to further provoke anti-abortion-rights groups, Sebelius on Thursday vetoed a bill passed by the Kansas legislature that would have “required doctors to report additional information to the state about late-term abortions and would have allowed more prosecutors to pursue criminal charges over late-term procedures,” according to an Associated Press report.

If confirmed, Sebelius would be the final member of Obama’s Cabinet to take office.

– Jeffrey Young