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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 8, 1993                   TAG: 9309080026
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

ELDERS WINS CONFIRMATION FROM SENATE

Dr. Joycelyn Elders, President Clinton's choice for surgeon general, was confirmed Tuesday night by the Senate, surmounting vigorous opposition from conservatives. The vote was 65-34.

Senators debated her nomination for more than six hours on the first day of their return from a summer recess. Elders was not present for the final vote.

Virginia Sen. Charles Robb voted in favor of Elders; Sen. John Warner voted against confirmation.

Republicans had acknowledged in advance of the vote that the former Arkansas health chief would be elevated to the position of surgeon general, the nation's No. 1 doctor.

Sen. Wendell Ford of Kentucky, the second-ranking Democrat in the leadership ranks, voted against Elders. Three other Democrats, Sens. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, John Breaux of Louisiana and James Exon of Nebraska, joined 30 Republicans in opposing her confirmation. Thirteen Republicans voted for Elders.

"I am, by training and temperament, a healer," Elders said in a statement after the vote.

"It is time to look forward - not back - to a time when all American children are planned and wanted, when all American children are immunized, when all American citizens have the security of quality health care, and when all dread diseases are a distant and haunting memory," said the statement, released by the Department of Health and Human Services.

by CNB