WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats plan next Wednesday to take up Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's nomination for secretary of state, in what is likely to be one of the highest-profile confirmation hearings for President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet.

Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.), incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that "I expect everybody to be focused on the real issues that confront the country, and I think it will be a good hearing."

Clinton's will be one in a series of forthcoming Senate confirmation hearings. The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, chaired by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D., Mass.), holds a hearing tomorrow on former Sen. Tom Daschle's nomination to be health and human services secretary, and also a hearing Friday on the nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis (D., Calif.) for labor secretary.




The Associated Press, January 7, 2009