US Senate confirms appointment of Sylvia Burwell as HHS Secretary

The US Senate yesterday confirmed the nomination of Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget, to serve as the next US Secretary of Health and Human Services, by a vote of 78 to 17.

She is succeeding Kathleen Sebelius, who  resigned in April amid criticism about the rollout of the Affordable Care Act. Ms Burwell will be sworn in on June 9.

In her new role, the 48-year-old veteran of the Clinton administration’s economic team will oversee 11 far-flung agencies that make up HHS, including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the enormous public insurance programs, Medicare and Medicaid, noted The Washington Post.