Morning Must Reads: April 11

3 minute read
Cherry blossoms in Washington
Photo taken April 9, 2014, shows cherry blossoms in Washington. Washington Monument is seen in the background.AP Images—Kyodo
By Maya Rhodan

  • “Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who led the government’s troubled rollout of the 2010 health-care law, will step down, her spokeswoman confirmed Thursday, capping a rocky five years in the Obama cabinet.” [WSJ]
  • What Sebelius Left Undone [TIME]
  • Sebelius: Face of Obamacare but snubbed by Obama: “When he announced enrollment on the exchanges had surpassed 7 million — far more than anyone expected when the exchanges failed badly for the first two months, it was Vice President Joe Biden, not Sebelius, who stood victoriously at his side. Sebelius, who was regularly hauled before Congress to defend the law’s rollout, was never allowed, or perhaps chose never to step forward, to announce any of the law’s successes. Sebelius will be replaced by Sylvia Mathews Burwell, currently director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, U.S. officials told NBC News.” [NBC News]
  • ” On Friday, President Obama is to nominate Ms. Burwell, currently director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, to take over one of the largest and most unwieldy parts of the federal bureaucracy as secretary of health and human services.If confirmed, Ms. Burwell would replace Kathleen Sebelius, who is resigning.Ms. Burwell, who was confirmed in a 96-to-0 vote last year to lead the budget office, has spent much of the past year mired in Washington’s fiscal fights, including the standoff that led to a 15-day government shutdown in early October. She also handled health policy as part of her job as Mr. Obama’s budget chief.” [NYT]
  • 50 years later, Obama salutes effects of Civil Rights Act [NYT]
  • “On Friday, Obama [will] address Al Sharpton’s National Action Network conference in New York where, the White House says, the president will take issue with Republican measures in some states that make it more difficult for Americans to vote.” [AP]
  • “A group of Senate Democrats is urging President Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline by the end of next month, saying the process ‘has already taken much longer than anyone can reasonably justify.'” [The Hill]
  • Bill O’Reilly: Jeb Bush is using my line [Politico]
  • House panel approves Lerner contempt resolution [ABC News]
  • A TIME guide to the controversy over IRS targeting [TIME]
  • Miss. Republican’s thoughts on gays, drugs, and Libertarians [BuzzFeed]
  • Ezra Klein talks Vox launch with New York Magazine [NY Mag]
  • National Journal Interactive: Who gets paid what in Washington [National Journal]

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