Obama names tobacco foe to health post

By Staff Reports

Published: January 13, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen William Corr, a leading voice in the fight against big tobacco, to help run the Department of Health and Human Services.

Corr is the executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, where he has lobbied for the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products and for stricter limits on tobacco product marketing.

If confirmed by the Senate, the administration job would reunite Corr with his old boss, Tom Daschle, who is slated to be the secretary of health and human services.

Corr was chief counsel and policy director for Daschle from 1998 through 2000, when Daschle was the top Democrat in the Senate. Corr also served as chief of staff for the Department of Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration.

In announcing Corr, Obama said in a statement that "reforming our health care system will be a top priority" and "key to putting our economy back on track."

"Bill Corr has the depth of experience and commitment to this issue necessary to take on this challenge," Obama said.

Before his legislative career, Corr worked in the Appalachian Mountains area of Tennessee and Kentucky, directing nonprofit, community-run primary health care centers. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and holds a law degree from Vanderbilt University.

-- Media General News Service