Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius is expected to become the next secretary of Health and Human Services after being endorsed by the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday. In a 15 to 8 vote, all senators opposed to Sebelius’ confirmation were Republicans, including Iowa senator Chuck Grassley and the number-two ranked Republican senator Jon Kyl of Arizona. Two Republicans--Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas and Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine--joined the committee’s Democrats in supporting Sebelius. If the two-term governor is confirmed by the full Senate’s vote, expected in the next week or two, Sebelius will play a crucial role in executing President Obama’s vision for health care reform, which is increasingly coming under fire by Republicans in Congress, reports the Los Angeles Times. Prior to the Senate Finance Committee’s vote, Kyl also voiced his concerns that Sebelius’ support of comparative effectiveness research, which received funding of $1.1 billion from the economic recovery package, would lead to rationing of medical care, according to The Washington Post.
