--- title: HHS Nominee Sylvia Mathews Burwell Flattered at Confirmation Hearing description: Lawmakers unexpectedly gave President Obama's nominee to run the implementation of his healthcare law widespread support during a Senate hearing canonical: https://time.com/92556/sylvia-mathews-burwell-hhs-obamacare/ author: Alex Rogers article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-08T17:18:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:44:01.312Z article:section: Politics og:title: HHS Nominee Sylvia Mathews Burwell Flattered at Confirmation Hearing og:description: Lawmakers unexpectedly gave President Obama's nominee to run the implementation of his healthcare law widespread support during a Senate hearing og:url: https://time.com/92556/sylvia-mathews-burwell-hhs-obamacare/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt567b496781380f11/69868e77f983e7442e04db63/sylvia-mathews-burwell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4096 og:image:height: 2304 og:image:alt: Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the nomination of Sylvia Burwell to be secretary of the Health and Human Services Department og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: HHS Nominee Sylvia Mathews Burwell Flattered at Confirmation Hearing twitter:description: Lawmakers unexpectedly gave President Obama's nominee to run the implementation of his healthcare law widespread support during a Senate hearing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt567b496781380f11/69868e77f983e7442e04db63/sylvia-mathews-burwell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # HHS Nominee Burwell Faces Barrage of Flattery at First Confirmation Hearing > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=9e66e0b9-5fe7-4773-9b50-180db52be6c0&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers May 8, 2014 5:18 PM UTC  Sylvia Burwell appears before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on her nomination to be secretary of the Health and Human Services Department in Washington DC, on May 8,2014. Sylvia Burwell appears before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on her nomination to be secretary of the Health and Human Services Department in Washington DC, on May 8,2014. Michael Reynolds—EPA by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers May 8, 2014 5:18 PM UTC The woman who is likely to oversee the ongoing implementation of the Obama administration’s healthcare law faced little opposition from Republicans at her first confirmation hearing Thursday, as they focused on her qualifications to serve rather than the law they uniformly despise. Republican senators, acknowledging their deep support of would-be Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell in unanimously confirming her for her current position as White House Management and Budget Secretary, resorted to backhand compliments and swipes at her predecessor Kathleen Sebelius —and sometimes outright endorsements. “Ms. Burwell, you have a reputation for competence,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the ranking Republican on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee. “And I would respectfully suggest, you’re going to need it.” “I advised her against taking the leadership position at HHS,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as he sat as a witness on behalf of Burwell. “After all, who would recommend their friend take over as captain of the Titanic, after it hit the iceberg?” Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) gave her an outright endorsement for the position, saying Burwell had “a portfolio of experience that would make her a tremendous asset.” The questioning was surprisingly soft. While some lawmakers quizzed her on the Independent Payment Advisory Board**,** a federal agency created by the law to lower Medicare costs that some conservatives feared would be “death panels,” Burwell simply responded that it was her estimate that the board would never actually be activated. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) called Sebelius “an ambassador for Obamacare,” and asked if Burwell would be too. The nominee replied she would “serve the American people,” to which Scott responded with a simple “thank you.” The hearing confirmed Burwell’s widespread popularity on Capitol Hill. Burwell, a former Rhodes scholar who has served on the foundations of both Bill Gates and Walmart, was confirmed as the Office of Management and Budget Director last year by a vote of 96 to 0\. Before the hearing, the head of a major health insurance lobby—Karen Ignagni of America’s Health Insurance Plans—released a statement overwhelmingly supporting Burwell. Recently Democrats have gone on the offensive on health care, since the HealthCare.gov site to enroll in federal health care exchanges exceeded expectations with over 8 million sign-ups, despite its disastrous October rollout. Thursday’s hearing was no exception, as Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), who is in one of the fiercest Senate races of the year, used the opportunity to speak of the benefits of the law. At one point, she asked Burwell how much it would have cost the state government to expand the Medicaid program in her state over the next few years. “That would be zero,” Burwell replied. “The federal government would pay for those years.” Hagan then touted that as many as 500,000 constituents could have benefited from the Medicaid expansion, which the Republican majority in the state government blocked. Hagan’s opponent this year is Thom Tillis, the State House Speaker who won a Senate primary on Tuesday after making opposition to Obamacare a key part of his platform. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/92556/sylvia-mathews-burwell-hhs-obamacare/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/92556/sylvia-mathews-burwell-hhs-obamacare/"},"headline":"HHS Nominee Burwell Faces Barrage of Flattery at First Confirmation Hearing","datePublished":"2014-05-08T17:18:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:44:01.312Z","description":"Lawmakers unexpectedly gave President Obama's nominee to run the implementation of his healthcare law widespread support during a Senate hearing","url":"https://time.com/92556/sylvia-mathews-burwell-hhs-obamacare/","keywords":["Health Care","White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt567b496781380f11/69868e77f983e7442e04db63/sylvia-mathews-burwell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Rogers","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt567b496781380f11/69868e77f983e7442e04db63/sylvia-mathews-burwell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the nomination of Sylvia Burwell to be secretary of the Health and Human Services Department","caption":"Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the nomination of Sylvia Burwell to be secretary of the Health and Human Services Department","creditText":"Michael Reynolds—EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health-care/","name":"Health Care"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/92556/sylvia-mathews-burwell-hhs-obamacare/","name":"HHS Nominee Burwell Faces Barrage of Flattery at First Confirmation Hearing"}}]}] ```