Senate confirms health nominee Sebelius

The Senate confirmed Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) as secretary of Health and Human Services Tuesday, providing President Obama with the final member of his Cabinet.

Sebelius won Senate approval on a 65 to 31 vote, with eight Republicans in addition to Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), who announced Tuesday he was switching parties to become a Democrat, voting with Democrats to confirm.

{mosads}Senate Republicans insisted on subjecting Sebelius to a 60-vote margin but Democrats got the result they wanted with votes to spare.

Democrats cheered the vote, which not only gives the Obama administration’s health reform campaign a public face but also gives the department a confirmed leader in the midst of the public health emergency over swine flu.

 “Gov. Sebelius is the right person to lead the Department of Health and Human Services,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). “She’s a problem solver, and that’s what Congress needs in a partner for healthcare reform.”

“With the confirmation of Gov. Sebelius, the commitment of the administration and Congress to passing healthcare reform this year now moves into high gear,” Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who missed the vote, said in a statement.

Though Sebelius’s place in the Obama administration was never truly in doubt, she faced down several challenges since being nominated March 2, despite a reputation as a centrist and a track record of winning elections in a conservative state.

First, Sebelius revealed that she had paid more than $7,000 in back taxes while under consideration for the Cabinet post. Then she was forced to disclose that she had vastly understated the amount of money her campaign accounts received from a controversial Kansas abortion provider.

The path to the Cabinet took an unexpectedly nasty turn in recent weeks as anti-abortion-rights foes insisted Republicans oppose her confirmation.

Sebelius’s position in favor of abortion rights is a “fatal character flaw,” Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said in a statement after the vote. “Sebelius’ extreme views on the issue of life, our most sacred value, are deeply troubling.”

Pressure from abortion activists worked, up to a point, as nearly all GOP senators ultimately voted against Sebelius, including Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Mike Enzi (Wyo.), the ranking Republicans on the two committees that deal with healthcare issues and health reform. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), a national leader in the anti-abortion-rights movement who is leaving the Senate to run for governor, voted to confirm a home-state nominee.

Senate Republicans also took advantage of the confirmation process in committee and on the Senate floor to take aim at Obama’s health reform proposals.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said that ideas such as creating a federal health insurance program and conducting comparative effectiveness research on medical treatments would inevitably lead to government rationing of healthcare.

In addition to Specter, Sebelius won the support of her home-state Republican Sens. Brownback and Pat Roberts, along with GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Kit Bond (Mo.) Judd Gregg (N.H.), Richard Lugar (Ind.), Olympia Snowe (Maine) and George Voinovich (Ohio).

Kennedy, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) did not vote.

This story was updated at 9:45 Wednesday morning.