Copyright 2001 Journal Sentinel Inc.  
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
January 25, 2001 Thursday FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 01A

LENGTH: 909 words

HEADLINE: 100-0;
U.S. senators welcome Thompson with unanimous approval for HHS job

BYLINE: CRAIG GILBERT of the Journal Sentinel staff

BODY:
Washington -- Months from now, Tommy G. Thompson will be tiptoeing through the political minefields of abortion, tobacco, Medicare and AIDS.

But Wednesday it was all kudos and clear running, as the U.S. Senate voted 100-0 to confirm the Wisconsin governor as secretary of health and human services.

Thompson, who watched the vote on C-SPAN from his Madison office, will not be sworn in and take office until at least next week. He plans to remain governor long enough to deliver his "state of the state" address next Wednesday night.

"I am humbled and honored," Thompson said in a statement. He declined interviews.

"We intend to make this a time of action in Washington," his statement says.

Until Thompson takes the oath of office, Surgeon General David Satcher is acting secretary of health and human services. Satcher, who is serving a fixed term that ends in 2002, is the senior official remaining at the department. Most of the 20 presidential appointees at HHS serve at the president's pleasure and resigned before the inauguration on Saturday.

Thanks to his reputation as a reformer and pragmatist, Thompson's nomination generated no real controversy on Capitol Hill. Abortion-rights groups opposed it. So did anti-smoking activists and some anti-poverty advocates.

But Senate Democrats saw him as someone they could work with, a relatively non-ideological Republican, a welfare reformer who slashed the rolls in Wisconsin but raised spending on day care and health care.

In the courtesy calls he paid on lawmakers and in his two Senate hearings, Thompson was solicitous of Democrats and mindful of lawmakers' pet concerns and parochial interests. They, in turn, were kind enough not to put him on the spot during his testimony.

Even liberal Democrat Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, who worried out loud about the future of welfare reform and Wisconsin's own poverty trends, voted for Thompson and leavened his doubts with compliments.

The only hard news that last week's hearings generated was Thompson's statement that he intends to review the safety of RU-486, the abortion pill. The governor opposes abortion.

But other potentially sticky questions went unasked. No one queried the governor on embryonic stem cell research, pioneered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison but opposed by anti-abortion groups. No one pressed Thompson on his ties to cigarette-maker Philip Morris, although he received gentle questions on the subject of tobacco regulations.

Acknowledging problems

But Thompson didn't stick entirely to the script in the hearings. While President Bush is determined to offer a Medicare prescription drug benefit in the form of block grants to states, Thompson openly acknowledged Democrats' hostility to the proposal, at one point conceding it wouldn't go far on Capitol Hill. Democratic lawmakers want a much broader drug benefit.

Thompson's path also was eased by the effusive support of outgoing HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and the state's two Democratic senators, Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold. Shalala, the former chancellor of UW-Madison, urged Thompson's confirmation despite her differences with him over abortion.

Kohl on Wednesday lauded Thompson as " hard working" and "results driven." Feingold offered his congratulations, calling Thompson "someone we can rely on to address the tough issues by bringing Wisconsin's 'can-do' attitude to Washington."

Lt. Gov. Scott McCallum, who is set to succeed Thompson as governor Feb. 1, said Thompson's departure would be a blow for Wisconsin.

"It is a loss for Wisconsin, but a tremendous honor for Wisconsin," McCallum said in a telephone interview as he traveled around the state. "Our loss will be the nation's gain. His energy level, his enthusiasm and his ideas will be of benefit to all of us."

On the Senate floor Wednesday, Iowa Republican Charles Grassley called Thompson "an ideal choice to lead this very all-encompassing department."

Senators on Wednesday also confirmed Norman Mineta as transportation secretary.

Thompson, 59, will be taking over a gargantuan bureaucracy. Its work force numbers 63, 000 people. It is the federal government's largest department in the quantity of its programs (more than 300) and their scope. It has the largest budget ($423 billion) of any cabinet department. And its broad mission -- the nation's health and social welfare -- gives it a unique political profile.

" For many of us," Senate Democrat Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts said last week, "that department represents the best hopes of Americans."

Thompson has plenty on his plate. Of the 20 high-level positions appointed by the president at HHS, eighteen have to be filled. Two, the surgeon general and director of the Indian Health Service, have fixed terms that expire next year. The vacancies to be filled now include such key positions as director of the National Institutes of Health and commissioner of food and drugs.

In addition, there are more than 140 lower-level political appointments for Thompson to make.

Thompson is expected to bring several aides with him to his new job.

Five already are at work at HHS: Bob Wood, who was his chief of staff; three aides who worked at the state's Washington office, Matt Grove, Mary Kay Mantho and Terrell Halaska; and Ed Sontag, a policy assistant in Madison.

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Steven Walters and Dennis Chaptman of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report from Madison.

LOAD-DATE: January 25, 2001