KS Governor Kathleen Sebelius Top On HHS List

According to CNN while no final decision is made "Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is a leading contender to become the next secretary of the Health and Human Services department, two senior administration officials told CNN. However, the officials stressed that President Obama is still checking out several other potential nominees for the critical job of shepherding his health-care reform plan through Congress."

"Should she be nominated, Ms. Sebelius would bring eight years of experience as her state’s insurance commissioner as well as six years as a governor running a state Medicaid program.

"But with President Obama about to begin a drive to expand health coverage, an issue on which the two parties have deep ideological divisions, her strongest asset in the view of the White House may be her record of navigating partisan politics as a Democrat in one of the country’s most Republican states," writes NY Times.

Tom Daschle, who was the original nominee to lead HHS and the health care report withdrew his nomination over after questions were raised about his failure to pay more than $100,000 in taxes for use of a car and driver.

Yesterday, Governor Kathleen Sebelius signed the 2009 budget bill and vetoed several components, solving the current budget gap in Kansas that put the tax refunds in jeopardy and protecting public schools from the drastic cuts proposed by the Kansas House of Representatives.

“While I agree with the Legislature that reducing the 2009 budget by more than $300 million is appropriate, I believe that with so much of the school year already behind us, the cuts proposed to public schools are too deep,” Sebelius said. “To provide schools better certainty in the few remaining months of this school year, I am vetoing the cuts to special education and implementing the Senate’s bipartisan recommendation of a much lesser rescission to school funding.

“Additionally, because the purpose of a rescission bill is to limit and lower spending, I am also vetoing more than $9 million in spending increases the legislature included in this bill.

“This budget represents deeper cuts than I would have preferred, but we have a shared responsibility to make these difficult decisions and enact a balanced budget. It is now time for the Legislature to turn its focus to 2010, and join me in developing shared solutions to overcome the even greater challenges that lie ahead.”