And Thomas A. Scully, who oversees Medicare, said Friday that the administration remained committed to fulfilling its promise.

Representative Bill Archer, the Texas Republican who heads the Ways and Means Committee, which oversees Medicare, has refused to discuss his plans.

His Presidential ambitions are still burning, and he has a new platform as chairman of the Finance subcommittee that oversees Medicare and Medicaid.

Gail Wilensky, a senior fellow at Project Hope, a health education foundation, who oversaw Medicare for the first President Bush, agreed.

His committee has sole jurisdiction over tax policy and oversees tariff and trade laws, Medicare, Social Security, and welfare and unemployment programs.

Nor apparently does the Federal Health Care Financing Administration, which oversees Medicare.

Dr. Sullivan directed the head of the Health Care Financing Administration, which oversees Medicare, to ask all hospitals receiving Medicare financing to ban smoking.

Mark McClellan, a physician and health economist, announced his resignation this week as head of the agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid.

As such, he promises to bring creativity to the federal agency that oversees welfare, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

H.H.S. officials approached Mr. Tallon recently about the job with the financing agency, which oversees Medicare and the Federal portion of the Medicaid program.