The Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, Xavier Becerra, on Thursday in a slim 50-49 vote. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was the only Republican to vote for the former California attorney general.
I’m honored and humbled by today’s vote in the Senate. Thank you. I’m ready to get to work at @HHSgov.
— Xavier Becerra (@XavierBecerra) March 18, 2021
While Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Becerra “has decades of standing up for working and middle-class Americans in Congress, fighting to protect and expand Medicare, Medicaid, and working to safeguard our health care system from attacks by the Trump administration,” multiple Republicans pushed back on the nominee’s “radical” track record.
Nearly every senator in the GOP, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, opposed Becerra’s confirmation citing his lack of health experience and qualifications, his radical positions on abortion, his refusal to call for free and fair elections in Cuba after meeting with dictator Fidel Castro, his efforts to pursue legal action against the Little Sisters of the Poor for refusing to comply with Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate on religious grounds, and his promotion of Obamacare, open borders, gun control, and radical climate plans.
If a Republican president had nominated someone to HHS like Xavier Becerra with zero health care experience, zero medical experience, zero pharmaceutical experience in the midst of a global pandemic, they would have been laughed out of the room. pic.twitter.com/TgspiJS73d
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) March 18, 2021
During his confirmation hearings, Becerra dodged Republicans’ questions about these issues, including his past support of partial-birth abortions, and falsely claimed he never sued any nuns, including Little Sisters of the Poor.
“I have never sued the nuns, any nuns,” Becerra said last week. “I’ve never sued any affiliation of nuns, and my actions have always been directed at the federal agencies.”
Multiple pro-life and conservative organizations rebuked Becerra’s confirmation noting that it merely confirmed the “extreme views” and lack of promised unity in the Biden administration.
“We’re disappointed to see the U.S. Senate hand the job of leading our nation out of the worst pandemic in 100 years to a man with zero training in medicine, science, pharma, or the health care world,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said. “The only real experience he has with the industry is suing hospitals, pregnancy care centers, and other entities that aren’t pro-abortion enough for his liking. His extreme views are bad enough, but as attorney general of California, he forced those views on others, even after he was rebuked by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
“The Biden-Harris administration has dropped all semblance of the ‘unity’ they once promised,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser.“To carry out the Administration’s extreme abortion goals, Senate Democrats have pushed through Xavier Becerra to lead the federal agency at the center of determining abortion policy. The agenda he promises to champion is deeply out of step with public opinion.”
