Senate Confirms David Satcher as Surgeon General

After more than three years, the nation once again has a “family doctor.”

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Dr. David Satcher, 56, as surgeon general, overcoming an effort by a handful of conservatives to thwart President Clinton’s choice for the job. The position has been vacant since 1994, when the flamboyant Dr. Joycelyn Elders was fired.

The Senate approved Satcher, an educator and physician who was most recently director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, in a 63-35 vote.

The confirmation vote came minutes after a key procedural battle in which the Senate agreed, 75 to 23, to end debate over the onetime inner-city doctor who years ago ran a free clinic in a Watts church basement.

Satcher is to be sworn in Friday for a dual role, also becoming assistant secretary of the Health and Human Services Department for health.

The surgeon general’s job commands little inherent power, but it serves as a bully pulpit for promoting public health issues. Past surgeons general have focused the nation’s attention on venereal disease, smoking and AIDS, often before the issues were widely discussed.

Elders was dismissed after making controversial comments about masturbation. And Clinton’s first choice to succeed her, Dr. Henry W. Foster Jr., failed when an acrimonious partisan debate erupted over the number of abortions he had performed.

Satcher was nominated in September and it initially appeared he would win quick confirmation. But a group of Republicans, led by Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.), sought to derail the nomination, largely over Satcher’s opposition to congressional efforts to ban so-called partial-birth abortions.

The conservatives also opposed Satcher’s support of a Third World AIDS study and of needle exchange programs to stem HIV transmission among intravenous drug users.

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On the confirmation vote, 19 Republicans joined 44 Democrats in voting for Satcher. Voting against were 35 Republicans.

Satcher, one of nine children born to rural self-taught farmers, called his confirmation “an American dream come true--to go from a humble farm in Anniston, Ala., to the office of the surgeon general, to have the chance to serve the country I love . . . “

Satcher promised “to work hard to engage all Americans everywhere in a lively, ongoing conversation about physical activity, good nutrition, responsible behavior and other passports to good health and long life.”

Clinton, in a clear reference to the criticisms directed at Satcher, praised him as “a mainstream physician who is an eloquent advocate for the health of all Americans.”

During the 1970s, Satcher served as interim dean at Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School in Los Angeles and chaired its family medicine department. While at Drew, he created an innovative program in which medical students studied for two years at the UCLA School of Medicine and two years at Drew, where they then provided medical care to Watts residents.

He was president of the Meharry Medical College in Nashville for 10 years. In that job, he challenged establishment academia to ensure that African American medical students had the same educational opportunities as whites.

He became CDC director--a job that also required Senate confirmation--in 1993.

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Profile: David Satcher

Background on the nation’s new surgeon general:

Age: 56

Hometown: Anniston, Ala.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in science from Morehouse College, Atlanta, 1963; medical and doctoral degrees at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, 1970.

Career: Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 1993; president of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, 1982-1993; professor and chairman of community and family medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine; interim dean of family medicine at King-Drew Medical Center, Los Angeles, 1977-1979.

Family: Wife, Nola Richardson Satcher; four children.