In a bipartisan vote on Thursday, the Senate confirmed Sylvia Mathews Burwell to fill Kathleen Sebelius' position as the new secretary of Health and Human Services.

President Obama nominated Burwell, who served as the White House's budget director, on April 11, the same day that Sebelius announced her resignation.

"Sylvia is a proven manager who knows how to deliver results, and over her career she has built deep relationships with Democrats and Republicans alike," President Obama said in a statement after the vote, according to the LA Times. "I'm confident Sylvia's unparalleled experience will serve her well in her new role as she works to ensure the safety of our food and drug supply, protect our nation from outbreaks or bioterror attacks, keep America at the forefront of medical research, and make sure every American has access to quality, affordable healthcare."

Right before the vote, Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said that Burwell attracted "a choir of bipartisan support" because "she is really that good, she is really that capable, and she is really that qualified," the Washington Post reported.

Starting on Monday, the 48-year-old Clinton administration's economic team veteran will head the HHS' 11 agencies, which includes the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and Medicare and Medicaid. However, much of her focus will likely be given to implementing the Affordable Care Act health law, which has expanded its coverage to 8 million Americans in a politically polarized atmosphere.

During her confirmation hearings, Burwell defended the ACA, telling a senior GOP legislator that she would not support weakening consumer protections in the law in order to give states more flexibility. As a result, 17 GOP voted against her nomination.

"Sylvia Burwell is a smart and skilled public servant, but her embrace of Obamacare calls her policy judgment into question," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor. "And when it comes to the task of implementing this ill-conceived and disastrous law, the president may as well have nominated Sisyphus because, as I indicated, Ms. Burwell has been asked to do the impossible here."