There are two hearings this morning. The Senate Budget Committee, chaired by Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, is holding a hearing on The CBO Budget and Economic Outlook. Probably more interesting is the nomination hearing for prospective Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Daschle of South Dakota. Daschle is testifying before Teddy Kennedy’s Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions (HELP) Committee. You can watch either of these hearings on CSPAN.

The Republicans are probably going to probe Daschle a bit on his wife’s lobbying activities but he was introduced by Bob Dole. There isn’t really any doubt that the former Majority Leader of the Senate is going to be confirmed by the Senate. In fact, I just saw former Wisconsin Governor (and HHS secretary) Tommy Thompson predict that Daschle will be a ‘great secretary’ and say that he fully supports him.

Despite the foregone conclusion of Daschle’s confirmation, the hearing will be interesting for a variety of reasons. It gives us an opportunity to observe Sen. Kennedy, who has rarely been seen on Capitol Hill since he was diagnosed with brain cancer last summer. It gives us the chance to see how the Republicans are going to approach health care in this congress. It also gives us a chance to get a sense of how the Democrats are going to craft their health care bill and how they are going to pitch it. Before the full Senate votes on Daschle, he will also appear before Sen. Max Baucus of Montana’s Finance Committee, which also has jurisdiction over health care issues.

I don’t think the Senate has passed their new Rules package, so don’t expect to see any Freshman senators sitting on the committees this morning.

We can use this thread to talk about health care, the budget, or the Kennedys. Or whatever.