Tuesday evening, the Senate confirmed Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services by a vote of 65 to 31. Later that evening, she was sworn in by President Obama in the Oval Office.
Sebelius has been governor of Kansas since 2003. From 1994 to 2002 she was the Kansas insurance commissioner. During her Senate confirmation hearings, Sebelius said that “health reform would be my mission” as HHS Secretary and stated her support for public and private health insurance coverage options. During the confirmation process, supporters praised Sebelius’s intellect and ability to reach across partisan divides, while opponents cited her support of abortion rights.
