
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 31, 1993                   TAG: 9307310109
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

ELDERS GETS BACKING OF SENATE PANEL, 13-4

A Senate committee voted 13-4 Friday to approve Joycelyn Elders as surgeon general. Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., pledged to bring her nomination before the full Senate for final approval next week despite a crushing pre-recess schedule.

Some Republicans, however, expressed doubt that the confirmation vote could occur before September and cautioned that many senators still had serious reservations about the controversial former head of the Arkansas state health department.

Three Republicans voted with the Democratic majority to recommend Elders: Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum, R-Kan., the ranking Republican on the committee, Sen. James M. Jeffords, R-Vt., and Sen. Dave Durenberger, R-Minn.

The committee session took less than an hour, and showed little of the tension that marked its question-and-answer session with the nominee a week earlier when Elders answered numerous queries concerning her support for sex education and condom distribution as well as details of her personal finances.

In the days following that hearing, Kennedy's staff collected 198 additional questions in writing from committee members, about half concerning her position on issues such as abortion and contraceptives.

by CNB