Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) was nominated by President-elect Barack Obama for the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Associated Press reported yesterday.
Daschle served in the Senate from 1986 and was defeated in 2004. Since then, Daschle has taken on a number of new projects, including taking the lead on Obama's health care policy group during the election and publishing a book in February called Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.
Earlier this year, Daschle sat down with Steve Clemons, of The New American Foundation to discuss the current challenges in health care and possible solutions. See the video here.
In other news, Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) has ousted Representative John Dingell (D-MI) for the chairman on the Committee on Energy and Commerce. Dingell has held the position for almost 28-years which has always been a key and influential position.
Waxman, who represents Beverly Hills and other portions of west Los Angeles, is known as a strong advocate for a rapid overhaul of the auto industry. He is a strong proponent of environmental issues, has called for stricter oversight of the FDA, and has been a long standing advocate for medial research and the NIH.
Dingell, on the other hand, comes from Michigan where the big three automakers struggle with solutions as the industry faces job loss, climbing pensions and competition from overseas. Dingell is married to a senior executive at General Motors.
The Committee oversees health care, climate change and energy. With the new Administration focused on these three areas, the vote to make Waxman will play a key role in Obama's reformist agenda.
Erica Anderson, Senior Digital Strategist
