Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights Recent Federal Personnel News

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 24 Dec 2007 - 10:00 PST

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Summaries of recent news about nominations and appointments to government agencies appear below.

• Department of Homeland Security: The Senate by voice vote on Wednesday confirmed Jeffrey Runge as the first-ever assistant secretary for health affairs and chief medical officer at DHS, CQ HealthBeat reports. During his confirmation hearing on Dec. 12, Runge answered questions about a Mexican resident with multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis who was able to travel undetected across the U.S. border several times this year, as well as bioterrorism preparedness (CQ HealthBeat, 12/20).
  
  
• Department of Veterans Affairs: James Peake was sworn in as VA secretary on Thursday after being confirmed by the Senate on Dec. 14, CQ Today reports. Peake said he would work to smooth the transition from military to veterans' health care and improve benefits for wounded servicemembers, adding that recommendations of a presidential committee led by former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala offered "a powerful blueprint to move forward" (CQ Today, 12/20).
  
  
• Office of the Surgeon General: Congress will remain open in a pro forma session over the holiday recess in a move by Democrats to prevent President Bush from appointing James Holsinger as U.S. surgeon general and to block other "objectionable nominees," the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. Steven Galson, a rear admiral in the federal Public Health Service, has been named acting surgeon general (Abdullah, Lexington Herald-Leader, 12/20).

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