Biden’s pick to lead Health and Human Services goes before Senate committees
President Joe Biden‘s choice for the nation’s top health official is testifying before Senate committees on Tuesday and Wednesday, as Republicans attempt to torpedo the nomination.
Xavier Becerra, who is California’s first Latino attorney general, was tapped by Biden to be his Health and Human Services secretary in early December.
Becerra, who would be the first Latino HHS secretary if confirmed, is defending his health care experience in his current job and in his longtime tenure in the House of Representatives. Republicans are attacking him on his lack of direct health care experience and his support of abortion and other liberal policies.
As secretary, he would play a key role in combating the pandemic, which has now claimed more than 500,000 American lives, up from more than 283,000 when he nominated. Yet the Biden administration has been operating without anyone in the post for more than a month.
Becerra is testifying before the Senate Health Committee on Tuesday and is set to do so before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, with only the latter voting on his nomination.
In his opening statement, Becerra addressed how he, as attorney general, responded to the pandemic in his own state. Becerra said that HHS has a “central role” in meeting the ambitious goals Biden set to battle the pandemic and doing so in a bipartisan fashion. He also stressed his upbringing as a son of a Mexican immigrant, his father’s recent passing and his history of expanding health care access.
