Sebelius Confirmed

The Senate does the right thing and finally confirms Kathleen Sebelius as HHS Secretary.

The Senate confirmed former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of Health and Human Services Tuesday on a 65-31 vote.

The timely vote will put Sebelius in office as the Obama administration is up against its first public health outbreak.

She steps into the role as swine flu numbers climb worldwide. As of Tuesday morning, at least 90 cases had been confirmed, including 50 in the United States.

Until her confirmation, the White House, which declared a public health emergency Sunday, was dealing with its first crisis without a secretary. But the administration said it was equipped to handle the situation.

There are still no appointees in place for any of the department's 18 key positions.

In most cases where a position is awaiting Senate confirmation, that job is filled by a career civil servant in an interim capacity. The Obama administration has named five nominees for the open positions.

And it'll take a little while to fill all the positions. Despite all the months of Republican delay, several voted for her anyway. In the end there was no reason to delay her confirmation, but the GOP did it out of spite. The question is how much did this delay cost America in our response to the Swine Flu outbreak?