| Kathleen Sebelius | |
|---|---|
| 21st United States Secretary of Health and Human Services | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office April 28, 2009 |
|
| President | Barack Obama |
| Deputy | Bill Corr |
| Preceded by | Mike Leavitt |
| 44th Governor of Kansas | |
| In office January 13, 2003 – April 28, 2009 |
|
| Lieutenant | John Moore Mark Parkinson |
| Preceded by | Bill Graves |
| Succeeded by | Mark Parkinson |
| 23rd Insurance Commissioner of Kansas | |
| In office January 9, 1995 – January 13, 2003 |
|
| Governor | Bill Graves |
| Preceded by | Ronald Todd |
| Succeeded by | Sandy Praeger |
| Member of the Kansas House of Representatives | |
| In office January 3, 1987 – January 9, 1995 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 15, 1948 Cincinnati, Ohio, United States |
| Political party | Democratic Party |
| Spouse(s) | Gary Sebelius |
| Alma mater | Trinity Washington University University of Kansas |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Kathleen Sebelius (pronounced /sɨˈbiːliəs/; née Gilligan, born May 15, 1948) is an American politician currently serving as the 21st Secretary of Health and Human Services.[1] She was the second female Governor of Kansas from 2003 to 2009, the Democratic respondent to the 2008 State of the Union address,[2] and chair-emerita of the Democratic Governors Association.
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Sebelius was born and raised in Roman Catholic family in Cincinnati, Ohio. She attended the Summit Country Day School in Cincinnati and graduated from Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C. with a B.A. in political science. She later earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Kansas. She moved to Kansas in 1974, where she served for eight years as a representative in the Kansas Legislature and eight years as Insurance Commissioner before being elected governor.
Sebelius is the daughter of former Democratic Ohio Governor John J. Gilligan, and thus they became the first father/daughter governor pair in the United States after her election.[3] Following passage of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, she pointed out another father-daughter connection: her father had been in the House of Representatives when Medicare was originally passed in 1965.[4]
Her husband, K. Gary Sebelius,[5] is a federal magistrate judge and the son of former U.S. Representative Keith Sebelius, a Republican. They have two sons. She also visits her childhood and current vacation home, located in Leland, Michigan, north of Traverse City, Michigan. An avid fan of jazz music, Sebelius as of 2009 has a 30-year unbroken streak of annually attending Jazz Fest in New Orleans.[6]
Sebelius served as executive director and chief lobbyist for the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association (now Kansas Association for Justice) from 1977–1986. She was first elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 1986. In 1994 she left the House to run for state Insurance Commissioner and stunned political forecasters by winning – the first time a Democrat had won in more than 10 years. She refused to take campaign contributions from the insurance industry and blocked the proposed merger of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, the state's largest health insurer, with an Indiana-based company. Sebelius's decision marked the first time the corporation had been rebuffed in its acquisition attempts.[7]
Sebelius was first elected governor of Kansas in 2002. She was re-elected in 2006.
Sebelius defeated Republican Tim Shallenburger in the 2002 election by a vote of 53 percent-45 percent.[8] Throughout her first term, Sebelius successfully built upon her popularity and in January 2006 was tied for 20th most popular governor in the country.[9]
On May 26, 2006, Sebelius formally announced her candidacy for re-election. Four days later, Mark Parkinson, former chair of the Kansas Republican Party, switched his party affiliation to Democrat; the following day Sebelius announced that Parkinson would be her running mate for Lieutenant Governor. Parkinson had previously served in the state House during 1991–1992 and the Senate during 1993–1997. Parkinson was viewed as a pro-business moderate who strongly supported public education. This was somewhat reminiscent of the fact that John Moore had also been a Republican, before switching just days prior to joining Sebelius as her running mate.[10]
She was challenged by Republican Kansas State Senator Jim Barnett. A September 1 Rasmussen poll showed Sebelius with an 11% lead over Barnett.[11] Other polls gave Sebelius as much as a 20% lead. As of 2004[update], 50% of Kansas voters were registered Republicans, compared to 27% as registered Democrats.[12] Sebelius, nevertheless, won a landslide re-election – with 57.8% – of the vote to Barnett's 40.5%. Because of Kansas's term-limit law, her second term as Governor was her last.
In February 2008, during Sebelius's second term in office, there was a report in the Wichita Eagle that the State of Kansas was suspending tax refunds and that, because of a lack of tax revenue, may not have been able to meet payroll for state employees.[13][14] Sebelius called for issuing certificates of indebtedness, moving funds from various state agency accounts into the general fund to alleviate the crisis. However, Republican leaders in the legislature did not agree with her certificate of indebtedness plan, saying the state would be unable to repay the certificates unless Sebelius issued allotments or signed a budget rescission bill that had been passed by the legislature but had not yet been delivered to her desk. The standoff ended when the budget arrived, and Sebelius agreed to sign it, although she line-item vetoed several cuts she felt were too large. The rescission bill reduced the budget by about $300 million. $7 million of the cuts came in the form of reduced educational funding.[15]
In 2001 Sebelius was named as one of Governing Magazine's Public Officials of the Year while she was serving as Kansas Insurance Commissioner.[16]
In November 2005, Time named Sebelius as one of the five best governors in America, praising her for eliminating a $1.1 billion debt she inherited, ferreting out waste in state government, and strongly supporting public education – all without raising taxes, although she proposed raising sales, property, and income taxes.[17] The article also praised her bipartisan approach to governing, a useful trait in a state where Republicans have usually controlled the Legislature.[18]
In February 2006, the White House Project named Sebelius one of its "8 in '08," a group of eight female politicians who could possibly run and/or be elected president in 2008.[19]
In October 2006, the Cato Institute gave Sebelius the grade of "D" on their biennial fiscal policy report card, which measures the fiscal performance of US governors based on spending and taxes. Her grade was influenced by the combination of proposed tax increases and expanded spending growth beyond population plus inflation.[20]
In 2009, Forbes named Sebelius the 57th most powerful woman in the world.[21]
In 2010, Forbes named Sebelius the 23rd most powerful woman in the world.[22]
During the 2004 election, Sebelius was named as a potential running mate for John Kerry.[23] In the aftermath of Kerry's defeat, some pundits named Sebelius as a potential candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008.[24] After Barack Obama's clinching of the nomination in June 2008, speculation that she would be a contender for the vice-presidential slot on the Democratic ticket continued.[25] The Washington Post listed her as the top prospect for the 2008 nomination.[26] James Carville and Bob Novak also mentioned Sebelius's name,[27][28] and Wesley Clark, also considered a potential running mate, publicly endorsed Sebelius, referring to her as "the next vice-president of the United States."[29] Speculation that the Vice Presidential nomination lay in her future was heightened by the fact that she was chosen by the Democratic Party's congressional leaders to give their party's official response to Republican President George W. Bush's 2008 State of the Union Address.[30] The next day, she endorsed Obama's campaign, one week before the Kansas caucus on Super Tuesday.[31] Obama won the caucus easily, with 74% support.[32]
Speculation on her Vice Presidential selection intensified when a report from political ad agency insider, Tribble Ad Agency, reported on its website that the Obama Campaign owned the domain name "ObamaSebelius.com" through the GoDaddy.com registration service.[33] However, just after midnight on August 23, it was reported by the Associated Press that Obama ultimately selected Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, as his running mate.[34]
Sebelius was considered to be on the short list for nomination to a position in Obama's Cabinet,[35] but she officially withdrew her name from consideration on December 6, 2008.[36] Following Bill Richardson's withdrawal as Obama's nomination for Secretary of Commerce, there was media speculation that Sebelius would be chosen as the new nominee.[37][38][39][40] Through a spokesperson, Sebelius reiterated her earlier statement that she would not consider accepting a nomination to the Cabinet position.[41] Sebelius's name was again floated as a replacement for Tom Daschle, who withdrew as Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services-designate over tax issues. The governor at first did not publicly comment on whether or not she would be interested in accepting the position.[42] On February 28, 2009, the British wire agency Reuters reported that Sebelius had accepted the president's offer to become Secretary of Health and Human Services and that she would be nominated on March 2.[43]
Following Senator Sam Brownback's announcement that he would not seek re-election to the Senate, and would instead run for Governor of Kansas in the 2010 elections, Sebelius was one of several people that media outlets speculated would run for the open United States Senate seat in 2010.[44][45] However, Sebelius declined to run and maintained her post in the Obama administration.[46]
Sebelius is a former chair of the Democratic Governors Association, a popular launchpad for those with national political ambitions.[47]
On February 28, 2009, it was reported that Sebelius had accepted Obama's nomination for the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services. On March 2, 2009, Obama officially announced Governor Sebelius as his nominee.[48] At Obama's announcement, Sebelius was accompanied by two Kansas Republicans, former U.S. Senator Bob Dole and current U.S. Senator Pat Roberts. Anti-abortion advocates opposed the nomination and anti-abortion members in the Senate were most likely to be her main opposition.[49] Sebelius was confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services by the Senate on April 28, 2009 with a vote of 65-31. [50]
During the background investigation process for this position, in March 2009 she admitted to "unintentional errors" in tax returns and paid nearly $8,000 in back taxes.[51][52] She took unduly large deductions in areas that included: charitable contributions, the sale of a home, and business expenses.[53][54][55][56]
In answer to questions from the Senate Finance Committee during her April 2009 confirmation hearing, Sebelius stated she received $12,450 between 1994 and 2001 from physician George Tiller, one of only 3 providers nationwide, who performed Late Term abortions, and who was famously gunned down subsequently. The Associated Press, however, reported that from 2000 to 2002 Tiller gave at least $23,000 more to a political action committee Sebelius established to raise money for Democrats while she was serving as state insurance commissioner.[57]
Sebelius was confirmed by the United States Senate by a vote of 65-31 and sworn in on April 28, 2009, amidst an outbreak of swine flu in the United States, Mexico, and numerous other countries around the world. Lieutenant Governor Parkinson was sworn in as Governor of Kansas and served the remainder of Sebelius' term. [58][59][60]
Sebelius is "staunchly pro-choice."[61] Her office stated that abortions declined 8.5% during her tenure as governor.[62] According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment statistics, the number of induced abortions in Kansas declined by 1,568, or 12.6%, from 2001 to 2007, the year of the most recently available statistics.[63] Her administration attributes the decline to health care reforms that Sebelius initiated, including "adoption incentives, extended health services for pregnant women..., sex education and... a variety of support services for families."[64] Nationally, the number of abortions declined approximately 7.6% from 2000 to 2005, the year of the most recently available and reliable U.S. statistics.[65]
Sebelius, a pro-choice rights advocate, has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood and they have conducted fundraising activity on her behalf.[66] The Catholic Church, to which Sebelius belongs, has not endorsed her, and in early March 2009, Archbishop Raymond F. Burke prefect for the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's highest court, declared that Sebelius should not approach the altar for Communion in the United States, and he noted that, "after pastoral admonition, she obstinately persists in serious sin"[67] Sebelius vetoed anti-abortion legislation in Kansas in 2003, 2005, 2006, and again in 2008.
On April 21, 2008, Sebelius vetoed House Substitute for Senate Bill 389, titled the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act by its sponsors. Proponents of the bill claimed the legislation would strengthen late-term abortion laws and prevent so-called "coerced abortions," particularly with respect to minors. The Kansas City Star reported that HS SB 389 would have required the State of Kansas to collect patient diagnostic information providing detailed medical justification for late-term abortions, and would have also permitted litigants to sue abortion providers if they thought that a relative of theirs was planning a late-term abortion in violation of Kansas law.[68] Sebelius objected to the constitutionality, efficacy and morality of the proposed legislation. She wrote, "The United States Supreme Court decisions make clear that any law regulating abortion must contain exceptions for pregnancies which endanger the woman's life or health. However, SB 389 allows a variety of individuals to seek a court order preventing a woman from obtaining an abortion, even where it may be necessary to save her life. I am concerned that the bill is unconstitutional or even worse, endangers the lives of women." In addition, she expressed concern that the bill would "likely encourage extensive litigation" and that it "unnecessarily jeopardizes the privacy of Kansas women's confidential medical records."[64]
Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Fred Naumann asked that Sebelius no longer receive Holy Communion because of her position on abortion. Naumann criticized Sebelius for vetoing HS SB 389.[69] The action received mixed reviews in the Catholic press.[70][71][72]
In September 2005, physician George Tiller won a reception at Cedar Crest, the official residence of the Governor, at an auction benefiting the Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus.[73][74] Anti-abortion commentators in Kansas have publicly criticized Sebelius's HHS nomination, accusing her of taking campaign donations from Tiller, who was the medical director of an abortion clinic in Wichita.[75] Tiller, who is credited with some 60,000 abortions, was one of Sebelius's largest campaign donors. On May 31, 2009, Tiller was shot through the eye and killed, by anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder, as Tiller served as an usher during the Sunday morning service at his church in Wichita.
Despite her pro-choice view, in December 2011, Sebelius overruled the FDA's recommendation on making the "morning after pill" (Plan B One-Step) available over the counter for females under the age of 17.[76] President Obama said that the decision was Sebelius', not his.[77]
Early in the term, Sebelius made education funding her top priority. Education funding reached a breaking point in the summer of 2005 when the Kansas Supreme Court ordered the Legislature to increase K–12 funding.[78] Sebelius offered one education funding plan early in her first term which consisted of property, sales, and income tax increases——resulting in 2006 in the largest K–12 education funding increase in the history of the state. The three-year plan aimed to increase education funding by nearly $1 billion over three years, but did not give a funding source for the second and third years.
Sebelius chaired the Governors’ Ethanol Coalition. In 2006 she requested that $200 million be allotted from the US government to support the Department of Energy Biomass and Biorefinery Systems Research and Development Program.[79] She pushed for more widespread recycling efforts across the state.[80] In addition, she vetoed bills authorizing the construction of coal-fired power plants on three separate occasions[81][82] saying in March 2008, "We know that greenhouse gases contribute to climate change. As an agricultural state, Kansas is particularly vulnerable. Therefore, reducing pollutants benefits our state not only in the short term — but also for generations of Kansans to come."[83] On June 2, 2008, Sebelius spoke at the American Wind Energy Association Conference, calling for greater federal support for wind energy and other renewable energy resources.[84]
Sebelius has said she supports Kansans' right to own firearms, but does not believe a broad concealed carry law would make them safer: "I don't believe allowing people to carry concealed handguns into sporting events, shopping malls, grocery stores, or the workplace would be good public policy. And to me the likelihood of exposing children to loaded handguns in their parents' purses, pockets and automobiles is simply unacceptable."[85]
Sebelius vetoed, like her Republican predecessor Bill Graves, a concealed-carry law that would have allowed citizens to carry concealed weapons after obtaining a state permit and passing an FBI background check.[86] The veto left Kansas, at the time, as one of four states without any form of a conceal-carry law.
On March 21, 2006, she vetoed Senate Bill 418, a similar concealed-carry bill. On March 25, her veto was overturned after the Kansas House of Representatives voted 91–33 to override it. This followed the Kansas Senate's 30-10 override vote, which occurred the day after her veto.[87]
On April 21, 2008, Sebelius signed Senate Bill 46 into law, which repealed a 1933 state law prohibiting civilian ownership of machine guns and other firearms restricted by the National Firearms Act of 1934, specifically permitting ownership by civilians successfully meeting the requirements of the NFA. The law was passed in part to address legal issues that could have prevented dealers from delivering firearms to law enforcement agencies in Kansas. The law took effect on July 1, 2008.[88]
Sebelius did not support an April 2005 amendment to the Kansas Constitution that made same-sex marriage in the state unconstitutional. Sebelius said she supported the existing state law outlawing same-sex marriage, viewing it as sufficient,[89] and therefore opposed the constitutional amendment. The amendment passed with 70% voter approval.
Sebelius is an opponent of capital punishment.[90] During her first term, the Kansas capital punishment laws were declared unconstitutional by the Kansas Supreme Court. However, on appeal by Kansas' then-Attorney General Phill Kline, the ruling was again overturned and the current law reinstated by the United States Supreme Court.
| Kansas Gubernatorial Election 2002 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Democratic | Kathleen Sebelius | 435,462 | 52.9 | ||
| Republican | Tim Shallenburger | 371,325 | 45.3 | ||
| Kansas Gubernatorial Election 2006 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Democratic | Kathleen Sebelius (Incumbent) | 480,532 | 57.8 | +4.9 | |
| Republican | Jim Barnett | 336,583 | 40.5 | ||
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Ronald Todd |
Insurance Commissioner of Kansas 1995–2003 |
Succeeded by Sandy Praeger |
| Preceded by Bill Graves |
Governor of Kansas 2003–2009 |
Succeeded by Mark Parkinson |
| Preceded by Mike Leavitt |
United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Served under: Barack Obama 2009–present |
Incumbent |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Tom Sawyer |
Democratic Party nominee for Governor of Kansas 2002, 2006 |
Succeeded by Tom Holland |
| United States order of precedence | ||
| Preceded by Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor |
Order of Precedence of the United States as Secretary of Health and Human Services |
Succeeded by Shaun Donovan as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development |
| United States presidential line of succession | ||
| Preceded by Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor |
12th in line as Secretary of Health and Human Services |
Succeeded by Shaun Donovan as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development |
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