CAMBRIDGE - Congresswoman Niki Tsongas on Thursday praised President-elect Barack Obama's selections for his cabinet and said she is glad he is selecting some newer voices as part of his administration.

"I think he's composed a team of rivals of enormous stature and ability," Tsongas, a Lowell Democrat, told PolitickerMA.com, referencing Doris Kearns Goodwin's book on President Abraham Lincoln's advisors by that name.

Tsongas described Obama's cabinet as a good balance of newcomers and veterans. She pointed to the appointment of Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations as an example of Obama's bringing in new staff. Obama's decision to select U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) as secretary of state and keep Bob Gates on as secretary of defense reveals his respect for experience, she said.

"As he starts to move past the top tier, we're beginning to see some newer voices and newer thinking helping support that, which I am glad to see," Tsongas said. "I do think we need that as well. We need the experience because it is a challenging time across the globe as well as here. And we need that fresh thinking and fresh approaches."

Tsongas's remarks came following a panel discussion on the economic crisis at a conference for newly-elected members of Congress at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Tsongas was first elected to Congress in a special election for Massachusetts' 5th District seat in 2007 and ran unopposed for re-election this year.

The conference has been very informative, Tsongas said, and has provided an opportunity to sit back and learn from experts in a variety of fields. On the economy, Tsongas said certain remedies are becoming clear.

"There is broad consensus, for example, on a stimulus package; you don't hear a lot of dissension about that," she said. "You hear some discussion of what the most important components of it should be. So I think that we know we have to go in that direction in the near term. There is a consensus that there has to be a new regulatory framework, for example, maybe some differences about how quickly to move ahead with it."