As expected, President-elect Barack Obama made official his nomination of former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) as Secretary of Health & Human Services on Thursday, Dec. 11. He also named Daschle as director of a new White House Office on Health Care Reform. Dr. Jeanne Lambrew, who authored a book about healthcare reform with Daschle, will serve as deputy director of the new office.
The White House Office on Health Care Reform will coordinate efforts within the administration, the Congress, and across the country to pass healthcare reform. Referring to Daschle’s two roles, President-elect Obama noted that Daschle “will be responsible not just for implementing our healthcare plan--he will also be the lead architect of that plan.”
Dr. Lambrew, the newly nominated deputy director of the White House office, is currently an associate professor of public affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Read the transition team's press release.
