President Obama’s pick for Surgeon General was approved by the Senate Monday night, after right-wing political theater staged before the holiday recess went awry.
Vivek Murthy, a nominee who had previously been held up by Republicans for his views on gun control, was approved in a 51-43 vote split along partisan lines with some exceptions. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill) crossed the aisle to join Democrats, while Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) disapproved of Murthy.
The vote never should have happened. But on Friday, after Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) demanded a vote on the Constitutionality of President Obama’s executive order on immigration, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) was able to use a procedural motion to schedule a vote on Murthy and other nominees before the 113th Congress recesses.
The lack of a Surgeon General was momentarily a political hot potato in the autumn. After hospitals in the US treated a handful of patients who contracted Ebola in West Africa, many Americans were whipped up into hysterics about a domestic outbreak–a panic informed by statements collectively described by Politifact as the “Lie of the Year.” Nonetheless, the office does preside over more than 6,800 public health officials, 75 of whom are currently in Liberia, having been marshaled to help quell the virus.
In November 2013, President Obama named Murthy to succeed Regina Benjamin, who stepped down in July 2013. His nomination passed the Senate health committee in February, but has since been delayed by Republicans. The National Rifle Association led a campaign to scupper Murthy’s selection, as The Washington Post reported in March. At the heart of the matter was a tweet written by Murthy declaring “Guns are a healthcare issue.”
Despite the headache caused by the nomination and the clout wielded by the NRA, Murthy was passionately defended by Democrats from the Senate floor on Monday.
“Go to the emergency room on a Friday or Saturday night, and you tell me that gun violence isn’t a public heath issue,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) demanded.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)–whose state on Sunday somberly marked the second anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown–said that empirical data is on Murthy’s side.
“Between 2000 and 2010, more than 335,000 people died as a result of gun violence. Pointing out these facts and asking whether there are strategies we could apply to bring that number down is exactly what a person tasked to keep Americans healthy ought to be doing,” Blumenthal claimed.
