In an unusual bipartisan vote, the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday advanced Marilyn Tavenner to head the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency responsible for overseeing Medicare, Medicaid and much of the health care reform law.

Her nomination has not been put to a formal floor vote by the full Senate, but it is widely expected she will be confirmed without any hiccups.

If confirmed, Tavenner would become the first confirmed administrator at the CMS in 7 years.
She would be in charge of overseeing the agency during a particularly challenging time for U.S. health care. Obama's health care reform law is set to take effect January 1st, expanding the Medicaid programs in states that opt in.

Meanwhile both Medicare and Medicaid continue to be the target of possible budget slashes in the ongoing discussion around deficit reduction.

Tavenner, a former nurse and hospital administrator from Virginia, has been acting administrator of the CMS since 2011 after her predecessor, Obama appointee Donald Berwick, departed when it became clear that his confirmation would be blocked amid the GOP's determination to undermine the health care reform law.

Though the CMS has been stymied by partisan politics since 2010, Tavenner's enthusiastic nomination — marked by praise from Republicans such as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) — may signal the cooling of partisan rhetoric around health care reform.

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