By CONGRESSDAILY STAFF
The Senate Finance Committee is not likely to consider the nomination of Kansas Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be HHS secretary before for the two-week spring recess.
The committee typically does not take a vote on a nominee until questions senators submit in writing are answered.
Given that Sebelius went before the committee Thursday, it is unlikely she will answer all those questions by today, according to a Republican committee aide. Finance ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, alone submitted 79 questions.
Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mt., had hoped to send her nomination to the full Senate for a vote before senators left town.
President Obama's first choice for HHS secretary, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., took himself out of the running in February amid tax problems. Sebelius has tax troubles as well, albeit on a much smaller scale, and they do not seem to be affecting her nomination.
By ANNA EDNEY, CongressDaily
Senate leaders are attempting to confirm Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas as Health and Human Services secretary this week. The task is no small feat given today's budget votes, but senators hope to get her installed in the post before they leave for the two-week spring recess.
"That's the whole reason we're having this hearing, to get her confirmed this week," Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said today as Sebelius faced questions from panel members. Former Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, R-Kan., introduced Sebelius at the hearing and asked the committee to confirm her this week. Referring to HHS headquarters, he joked that Sebelius "can't even get in the building." It was her second hearing this week, following one Tuesday with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
By ANNA EDNEY, CongressDaily
Kansas Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius Tuesday became the latest Obama administration Cabinet nominee to have tax problems come to light.
The HHS secretary nominee informed the Senate Finance Committee that she and her husband paid $7,040 in back taxes and $878 in interest for 2005, 2006 and 2007 taxes after a review by a certified public accountant found the errors. Sebelius characterized the discrepancies as "unintentional."
Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., stood behind Sebelius and called for quick action on her nomination.
"Congress is going to need a strong partner at the Department of Health and Human Services to achieve comprehensive health reform this year, and we have that partner in Gov. Sebelius," Baucus said in a statement. "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Gov. Sebelius has the political experience, determination, and bipartisan work ethic to get the job done with Congress this year."
Sebelius is set to appear before the Finance panel Thursday.
Finance ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is waiting to make a decision on Sebelius, a spokeswoman said.
Continue reading Sebelius Discloses Tax Troubles Of Her Own.
By PETER COHN, CongressDaily
The Senate Finance Committee will vote Thursday on the nomination of former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk to be U.S. Trade Representative, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., announced today.
Kirk appeared before the panel in a rapid-fire hearing Monday evening that was cut short due to votes on amendments to the FY09 omnibus appropriations bill. There appear to be no impediments to his confirmation, although the hearing Monday was sparsely attended. There was little reference to Kirk's tax troubles, which include nearly $10,000 in underpayments uncovered by Finance investigators.
Across the Capitol, House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich., held an organizational meeting for the 111th Congress, outlining a broad agenda ranging from a hearing on the trade aspects of climate change March 24 to renewal of expiring trade preferences programs granting numerous developing nations duty-free access to U.S. markets.
Levin said he was heartened by Kirk's testimony Monday, which signaled a shift away from negotiating new trade agreements and toward enforcement of existing ones. He said he hopes to move trade enforcement legislation that he introduced with Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., in January "expeditiously," but said the bill could be revamped in talks with Kirk and the Obama administration.
The complete story is available to CongressDaily subscribers.
Last week on National Journal's Health Care Expert Blog, contributors weighed in on how both Tom Daschle's withdrawal and the economic stimulus package -- slated to be signed today by President Obama in Denver -- have affected plans to reform health care in 2009.
While rumors have been floating around about whom Obama will appoint as HHS secretary, the White House has acknowledged that "we are vetting," but would not elaborate further, according to the Washington Post. Some names that have surfaced include Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.
The outlook for health care reform in 2009 is not bright from the perspective of James P Gelfand, senior manager of health policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who noted Daschle's "unique" qualifications for the HHS post and argued that "his loss will definitely delay and cost the process." Ultimately, Gelfand said, lawmakers should not hastily push health care through this year.
Others, however, are not discouraged by either the delayed HHS appointment or the ailing economy. Ron Pollack, executive director for FamiliesUSA, said Daschle's withdrawal "will not significantly slow down the health care reform effort." He stressed that "reform rests with the President and the key committee chairs that have jurisdiction over health care" -- such as Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. These lawmakers have all expressed a commitment to achieving reform this year, Pollack said.
This assertion was confirmed by Sen. Baucus himself, who wrote on the blog that reform is "not only possible in 2009, it is imperative." Baucus, who chairs the Finance Committee, said that once the stimulus package was out of the way he would refocus the panel's attention onto health care.
Meanwhile, the new secretary of HHS, whoever it is, will be "confronted with two interrelated challenges," according to USC professor Leonard D. Schaeffer. He or she must 1) be knowledgeable about the politics of health care and 2) assess internally the management issues facing the department. For successful reform, Schaeffer writes, HHS "needs to change."
By KIRK VICTOR
Senators, even those who dislike one another intensely, are known for their formality and graciousness towards one another on the Senate floor. They try to maintain that façade as much as possible in public.
Of course, there have been some famous feuds that burst into the open. Who can forget the bitter hostility between New Jersey Democratic Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Torricelli in the late 1990s? They even got into a well-publicized fight at a Democratic retreat in front of their colleagues and staffers.
But such outbursts are the exception. More often the enmity is submerged, out of view. So it was no surprise that when former Sen. Tom Daschle's name was leaked as the likely new secretary of Health and Human Services, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., hailed the appointment even though the two men had grown to dislike each other intensely before Daschle lost his Senate seat in 2004.
Yesterday, Baucus called President-elect Obama's choice of Daschle "a great nomination" and went on to say, "Having Senator Daschle at HHS and as the point person for the Obama administration on health care would only improve the chances of success."
Yet it wasn't all that long ago, when Daschle, then the Democratic Senate leader, was angry that Baucus had strayed from the party position and supported President Bush's top domestic priority, steep tax cuts. As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., described it in his book, The Good Fight, published earlier this year:
Baucus was the only Westerner to vote against [South Dakotan] Daschle in his race for Democratic leader in 1994, which Daschle had only won by a single vote -- and they had been driven farther apart on the issue of taxes. By the end, they really couldn't stand each other, and had had several extremely testy exchanges on the floor and in private as a result.
Fast-forward to today, and it is a tad ironic that Daschle will be going before Baucus' committee, which not only is responsible for his confirmation hearings but also will be a key player in health care reform, a priority for the Obama administration.
