U.S. Senate Approves Regina Benjamin for Surgeon General Post

Posted 11 4 2009 7:01AM

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The Senate confirmed ReginaBenjamin to be U.S. surgeon general, a vote that had beendelayed because of a partisan dispute over President BarackObama’s push to overhaul the nation’s health-care system.

Obama nominated Benjamin for the job in July. Herconfirmation was blocked by Senate Republicans after the Obamaadministration barred insurance companies participating in thegovernment’s Medicare program from making their case to seniorsthat his proposed health-care overhaul could mean benefit cuts.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a KentuckyRepublican, decried what he called the administration’s “gagorder,” and said he’d block nominees for jobs that are part ofthe Department of Health and Human Services until it relented.

The White House gave in, which allowed Benjamin’snomination to win confirmation late yesterday on a voice vote.

Benjamin, 53, is a family physician who founded a clinicthat serves the rural poor along Alabama’s Gulf Coast. She wasthe first woman and first black to serve as president ofAlabama’s medical association.

She also was the first black woman elected to serve on theboard of trustees of the American Medical Association. Lastyear, she received a so-called genius grant from the John D.and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and was named by U.S.News and World Report magazine as among America’s best leaders.

When Obama announced her nomination, Benjamin called thesurgeon general job “a physician’s dream.” She said she wasdedicated to preventative medicine, citing the deaths of familymembers from diabetes, lung cancer and HIV-related illnesses.

“My family’s not here with me today because ofpreventable diseases,” she said as she stood by Obama’s sideat the White House. While “I cannot change my family’s past,”she said, “I can be a voice in the movement to improve ournation’s health care, and our nation’s health, for thefuture.”

The post was created in 1870 to provide a supervisingsurgeon for the U.S. hospital system. The job evolved, with thesurgeon general now serving as a leading educator about public-health issues.

To contact the reporter on this story:Brian Faler in Washington at   or bfaler@bloomberg.net .