Hillary Clinton May Get Seat on Senate Health Panel
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is expected to announce today that she has received a seat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the New York Daily News reports. The health panel seat "will allow" Clinton to "push health care reform anew" and re-enter "center stage" in the health reform debate, the Daily News reports. Clinton's spokesperson Karen Dunn neither confirmed nor denied the appointment. The Daily News adds that Clinton also has "locked in a seat" on the Environment and Public Works Committee, as well as a possible spot on a "minor" committee. Clinton had selected the Senate Appropriations Committee as her first choice and the health and environment panels as her next choices, the Daily News notes. The Daily News reports that "Senate perks are decided in an unpredictable, byzantine process that leans heavily on seniority -- of which Clinton has next to none -- but quietly weighs less-predictable factors, such as popularity with colleagues" (Burger, New York Daily News, 1/11).
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