After a difficult five years shepherding President Obama's signature health care law, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has tendered her resignation, according to two senior administration officials.
Obama accepted the resignation this week and intends to announce that he will nominate Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell to replace Sebelius.
During the first difficult weeks of the federal marketplace, Sebelius proved to be an unsteady administration spokeswoman for the health care law.
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| Kathleen Sebelius |
On Thursday, Sebelius touted to the Senate Finance Committee that 7.5 million people had enrolled in private health insurance plans — 500,000 more people than the Congressional Budget Office's initial projections for the first year.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., greeted news of Sebelius' departure with snark.
"I thank Secretary Sebelius for her service. "The next HHS Secretary will inherit a mess — Americans facing rising costs, families losing their doctors and an economy weighed down by intrusive regulations," Priebus said. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., offered a stout defense of Sebelius.
"From day one, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has remained laser-focused on a single purpose: to make health care a right, not a privilege, for all Americans," Pelosi said. Obama thought Burwell — with a strong reputation inside and outside government as a manager — was an ideal candidate to be the next HHS secretary, officials said. Politics also runs deep in Burwell's blood. "Sylvia Burwell is an excellent choice to be the next #HHS Secretary," he wrote.