Obama's pick to lead on health care gets hearing

[struggle4progress]

By KEVIN FREKING – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Showing the emphasis that some lawmakers are putting on health care issues this year, former Sen. Tom Daschle will be the first of President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet choices to undergo a hearing.

Daschle, Obama's pick as the next health and human services secretary, was to appear Thursday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The committee's chairman is Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.

The committee will not vote on whether Daschle's nomination should be sent to the full Senate for a vote; That responsibility lies with the Senate Finance Committee. But in the coming months, the Health Committee is expected to help craft legislation designed to expand health insurance coverage. Lawmakers are eager to get Daschle's perspective.

Daschle has made it clear in the past year that he believes Congress needs to move fast on health legislation, and Kennedy has that same viewpoint, as his staff has spent recent months meeting with various trade and interest groups that have much at stake in the coming debates ...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h2Cu40xipMPFau22i8sU0EbIvsfgD95IRU2G0

Political Notebook
Kerry sets hearings on Clinton, Rice
January 8, 2009

Senator John F. Kerry announced yesterday that the Foreign Relations Committee will hold the confirmation hearing Tuesday for Hillary Clinton, President-elect Barack Obama's pick for secretary of state.

Clinton is expected to be confirmed without any serious opposition when the committee votes two days later, just before the confirmation hearing for Susan Rice, Obama's selection for ambassador to the United Nations ...

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/01/08/kerry_sets_hearings_on_clinton_rice/

January 7, 2009, 4:00 pm
Confirmation Hearings Update
By Kate Phillips

... On Friday, Mr. Kennedy’s panel will question Representative Hilda Solis, who has been chosen to be the Labor Secretary.

Next week’s schedule will be packed with high-profile candidates for several Cabinet positions. On Tuesday, as we noted above, Senator Clinton, appears before Foreign Relations; Peter Orszag, selected to head the Office of Management and Budget, before the Budget Committee; Arne Duncan, as education secretary-designate, before the HELP panel; Steve Chu, up for Energy Secretary, before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee; Lisa Jackson (E.P.A.) before the Environment and Public Works Committee.

On Wednesday, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack appears before the Agriculture Committee; the Veterans Affairs Committee will consider Eric Shinseki to head the V.A.; and Mr. Orszag will appear before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The main headliner on Thursday will be Eric Holder Jr., whose selection to be Attorney General has already sparked criticism from Senator Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. But other officials also will be testifying: Senator Ken Salazar, named to head Department of the Interior, will appear before the Energy & Natural Resources panel; and as noted above, Ms. Rice before Foreign Relations ...

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/confirmation-hearings-update/

TPM's Early Handicapping of the Obama Confirmation Hearings
By Elana Schor - January 7, 2009, 12:13PM

... Eric Holder, the deputy attorney general for four years under Bill Clinton, is shaping up as the nominee most likely to get a smackdown from Republicans when he appears in the Senate judiciary committee on January 15. Their gripes with Holder's record are thin, focusing on his designation of the controversial 2001 Marc Rich pardon as "neutral, leaning towards favorable" before Clinton went through with it ...

Tim Geithner, the New York Federal Reserve head who had a front-row seat for negotiations on the financial bailout last fall, is headed for a rough ride in the Senate finance committee on January 14. The panel's senior Republican, Chuck Grassley (IA), has been a consistent critic of the lack of transparency in disbursing the bailout funds. Watch for him to be the sharpest skeptic, more so than most finance panel Dems ...

Lisa Jackson, the New Jersey environmental protection chief, will be examined by Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-CA) environment committee on January 13. Jackson is another nominee with red flags in her background that could draw fire from liberals, particularly an EPA inspector general's report that chastised her department for lagging in cleaning up Superfund waste sites ...

Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA) is set to come before Kennedy's HELP committee on Friday for her confirmation hearing. The nominee and the chairman will bond over their shared commitment to the Employee Free Choice Act, but panel Republicans may take the opportunity to press Solis on her closeness to the labor movement ...

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/confirmation_station_a_guide_to_the_hearings.php

[Thrill]

1. Its about to start at 10:00. MSNBC covering it

What is Bob Dole doing there?