Confirmation Hearings Set For Obama Nominees

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has scheduled several confirmation hearings in early January to help ensure Barack Obama's Cabinet is in place soon after he is sworn into the White House.

Kennedy, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, announced Tuesday that his panel would hold a confirmation hearing on Jan. 8 for Tom Daschle, Obama's choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, and another one on Jan. 9 to consider the nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis to be Obama's Labor secretary. The panel on Jan. 13 will then hear testimony from Arne Duncan, who Obama wants to run the Education Department.

The new Congress convenes next week, and lawmakers are expected to have their hands full crafting a massive economic-stimulus bill, hearing testimony from Obama's Cabinet choices and potentially debating whether to release the second half of the $700-billion financial bailout package.