(File Photo: Xinhua/AFP)

US Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson resigned Friday, becoming the eighth cabinet member to resign after President George W. Bush was reelected in early November.

At a press conference a few hours after tendering his resignation to the president, Thompson said that it was time "for me and my family to move on to the next chapter in our life."

With his term as health and human services secretary, Thompson said he had served 40 years in public life, which included 14 years as governor of Wisconsin.

Thompson, the eighth member of Bush's 15-person cabinet to depart, said he would serve until Feb. 4 or until the Senate confirms his successor.

Mark McClellan, the government's Medicare chief and brother of White House press secretary Scott McClellan, was Thompson's likelysuccessor, officials said.

Earlier Friday, Bush named former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik to be the new chief of the Department of Homeland Security, to replace Tom Ridge, the country's first homeland security secretary.

So far Bush has tapped six candidates, three of them from within the White House, for his second-term cabinet.