One Out, One In On Bush Team

After eight months overseeing the new Medicare drug benefit, the biggest change since the health program's beginning, Mark McClellan said Tuesday it was time to move on.

McClellan, 43, has been with the Bush administration from the start, and he has been at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services since March 2004.

"My kids don't remember me in a job where I got home regularly for dinner. It's just time," said McClellan, the father of 7-year-old twin girls. "We've gotten a lot accomplished and I'm very confident with the track the agency is on."

Also Tuesday, President Bush picked Mary Peters to be the nation's new transportation secretary, a Cabinet position that took on more prominence after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

If confirmed by the Senate, Peters, a former federal highway administrator who had explored a run for governor of Arizona, will succeed Norman Mineta, who stepped down in July.

Noting Mineta's long tenure in the post, Peters said that if she's confirmed, she would feel a bit like Ginger Rogers dancing with Fred Astaire. "I think I'm going to be dancing backward in high heels a little bit," she said.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said McClellan's task of overseeing the Medicare drug benefit's implementation was the equivalent of a Mars landing.

Under the program, elderly beneficiaries enroll in plans administered by private insurers. Seniors had dozens of plans to pick from, and many participants were left confused and frustrated. Early on, states had to step in to ensure their poorest residents could continue getting medicine.

"Of course, he should get credit for a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make sure millions of Medicare beneficiaries get their prescriptions filled smoothly," Grassley said.

President Bush called McClellan a trusted adviser.

"He played an instrumental role in transforming the nation's health care system, and his efforts will continue to make a difference for generations," Bush said.

McClellan said he will leave the agency in about five weeks and probably will work for a think tank where he can write about improving health care in the United States. He served a short stint as a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, but he said he has no particular think tank in mind now.

McClellan is the brother of former White House press secretary Scott McClellan. His mother, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, is the Texas comptroller and is running for governor as an independent.

"Texas might be a nice place to visit for a little while," he told reporters when asked about whether he would assist any gubernatorial candidates there.

As the CMS administrator, McClellan oversaw programs that spent more than $570 billion annually. But it was the start of a drug benefit under Medicare that was his biggest priority over the past two years.

McClellan said he did not know who his successor would be. He said that was a decision that would come from the White House and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.

He did say the agency had four senior leaders that he relied on: Leslie Norwalk, the deputy administrator; Herb Kuhn, director of the agency's Center for Medicare Management; Dennis Smith, who oversees the Center for Medicaid and State Operations, and Abby Block, who oversees the Center for Beneficiary Choices.