Obama Picks Tom Daschle For HHS Secretary
By Doug Mataconis | Related entries in Barack, General PoliticsBefore the election, there was some speculation that former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle might become Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff, instead he appears to be headed to the Department of Health and Human Services:
CHICAGO (CNN) — Three sources close to the transition and in a position to know tell CNN that former Sen. Tom Daschle is President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to be Secretary of Health and Human Services and the former Senate Majority Leader has indicated he wants the job.
Most significantly, Daschle negotiated that he will also serve as the White House health “czar” — or point person — so that he will report directly to the incoming President. The significance is this guarantees that by wearing two hats Daschle, and not White House staffers, will be writing the health care plan that Obama submits to Congress next year.
The sources said the precise timing of the announcement has not been worked out, but Daschle is likely to officially join the Obama transition team as the lead adviser on health issues in the next few weeks. An Obama transition official had no comment.
Given Daschle’s years in the Senate, he would seem to be the logical choice to lead a health care initiative through Congress.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 and is filed under Barack, General Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Interesting. I thought this would be the logical backup post for Richardson if Clinton took State. Perhaps this announcement is an indicator that Clinton has declined and Richardson wil be SOS.
November 19th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
[...] previously reported, Barack Obama has chosen Tom Daschle to head Health and Human Services and serves as the point-man [...]