The Senate Finance Committee plans to vote April 21 on the nomination of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to lead the Health and Human Services Department, despite concerns voiced Friday by ranking Republican Charles E. Grassley of Iowa.

Grassley called it a “bombshell” that Sebelius initially understated campaign contributions she had received years ago from a doctor who performs abortions. He said the contributions have “raised a lot of concern among pro-life people,” and added that he has not decided how he will vote on her nomination.

Finance Chairman Max Baucus , D-Mont., announced earlier Friday that the committee will vote on the Sebelius nomination during a break in next Tuesday’s scheduled roundtable entitled, “Reforming America’s Health Care Delivery System.”

A White House spokeswoman said the administration is confident that the committee will approve Sebelius’s nomination and the full Senate will confirm her.

“Gov. Sebelius has enjoyed significant bipartisan support throughout the nomination process,” said White House spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield.

The two-term governor is President Obama’s second choice for the HHS job. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. (1987-2005), was forced to withdraw his nomination in early February after revelations that he had paid $140,000 in back taxes and interest in early January.

Sebelius, too, disclosed after Obama had nominated her that she and her husband paid an additional $7,000 in taxes because of errors in their joint tax returns for 2005 to 2007. The mistakes were found by a certified public accountant they hired in preparation for her confirmation hearings, she told the panel.

In a telephone interview, Grassley voiced more concern about political contributions to Sebelius from George Tiller, a Kansas physician who performs late-term abortions, than about the tax issue. He said he has been asked about it at four or five town meetings in Iowa during the spring recess.

“I’d have to say this bombshell about her not reporting all of her income from this one doctor, this one abortion doctor, you know, I think that at the grassroots is raising some additional questions that are already compounded by her tax issue,” Grassley said.

Correcting the Record

Sebelius, in initial written answers to questions from members of the Finance Committee, said that Tiller had contributed a total of $12,450 to her campaigns for state insurance commissioner between 1994 and 2001. (She was first elected governor in 2002.)

She subsequently corrected the total to $39,600. “I regret that there was an inadvertent omission in my previous responses to my question,” she told the committee. “The oversight led to an incomplete listing of certain PAC contributions as well as contributions from Dr. Tiller’s business.”

The correction came after the Associated Press reviewed state campaign finance records provided by the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue and found Tiller contributed $23,000 to a PAC established by Sebelius called the Blue Stem Fund between 2000 and 2002. The PAC provided financial support to other Democrats.