--- title: Sylvia Mathews Burwell Confirmed As HHS Secretary description: The Senate approved Sylvia Mathews Burwell's nomination to become the next Health and Human Services Secretary 78 to 17. canonical: https://time.com/2827571/senate-confirms-sylvia-burwell-as-health-and-human-services-secretary/ author: Alex Rogers article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-05T18:28:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:14:45.669Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sylvia Mathews Burwell Confirmed As HHS Secretary og:description: The Senate approved Sylvia Mathews Burwell's nomination to become the next Health and Human Services Secretary 78 to 17. og:url: https://time.com/2827571/senate-confirms-sylvia-burwell-as-health-and-human-services-secretary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sylvia Mathews Burwell Confirmed As HHS Secretary twitter:description: The Senate approved Sylvia Mathews Burwell's nomination to become the next Health and Human Services Secretary 78 to 17. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Senate Confirms Sylvia Burwell As Health and Human Services Secretary > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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. by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Jun 5, 2014 6:28 PM UTC by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Jun 5, 2014 6:28 PM UTC The Senate confirmed Sylvia Mathews Burwell as the 22nd Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Thursday. She will replace Kathleen Sebelius, who was heavily criticized for the flawed rollout of the government’s federal insurance exchange website HealthCare.gov. Burwell sailed through her confirmation hearings despite the politicized nature of the President’s eponymous health care law, which is implemented by HHS. Even Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said Thursday that he would oppose her nomination because she approved of Obamacare, called Burwell “a smart and skilled public servant.” The Senate approved Burwell’s nomination 78 to 17. Burwell, the former Office of Management and Budget Director, will now move from her perch near the White House to offices closer to the Capitol. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2827571/senate-confirms-sylvia-burwell-as-health-and-human-services-secretary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2827571/senate-confirms-sylvia-burwell-as-health-and-human-services-secretary/"},"headline":"Senate Confirms Sylvia Burwell As Health and Human Services Secretary","datePublished":"2014-06-05T18:28:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:14:45.669Z","description":"The Senate approved Sylvia Mathews Burwell's nomination to become the next Health and Human Services Secretary 78 to 17.","url":"https://time.com/2827571/senate-confirms-sylvia-burwell-as-health-and-human-services-secretary/","keywords":["health","Obamacare","hhs"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Rogers","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"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/","name":"health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2827571/senate-confirms-sylvia-burwell-as-health-and-human-services-secretary/","name":"Senate Confirms Sylvia Burwell As Health and Human Services Secretary"}}]}] ```