FILE – On this Dec. 4, 2019, file picture, then California Legal professional Basic Xavier Becerra speaks throughout a information convention in Sacramento, Calif. President Joe Biden’s choose for well being secretary is dealing with two days of contentious Senate hearings. Republicans are portraying the Californian as unfit. However Democrats are unfazed, accusing the GOP of enjoying politics regardless of the pandemic. California’s legal professional basic, Xavier Becerra, will probably be grilled by two panels starting Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s choose for well being secretary faces two days of contentious Senate hearings. Republicans are portraying the Californian as unfit however Democrats are unfazed, accusing the GOP of enjoying politics regardless of the pandemic.
Xavier Becerra, now legal professional basic of the nation’s most populous state, will probably be grilled by two panels. Tuesday, it is the well being committee’s flip, adopted Wednesday by the Finance Committee, which can vote on sending Becerra’s nomination to the Senate flooring. If confirmed, he’d be the primary Latino to move the Division of Well being and Human Companies, a $1.4 trillion company with a broad portfolio that features medical health insurance applications, drug security and approvals, superior medical analysis and the welfare of kids.
Becerra, 63, represented Hispanic neighborhoods of Los Angeles within the U.S. Home for greater than 20 years earlier than turning into his state’s chief legislation enforcement officer, succeeding Vice President Kamala Harris after she received election to the Senate. His politics are liberal however his fashion is low-key and oriented towards drawback fixing. As a congressman he performed a behind-the-scenes position steering President Barack Obama’s well being care legislation by Democratic divisions within the Home.
Republican opposition has grown louder forward of his nomination hearings. On Monday, Sens. John Kennedy of Louisiana and Tom Cotton of Arkansas launched a letter by which they requested Biden to withdraw the nomination, calling Becerra “unfit for any place of public belief.” Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has known as him “famously partisan.” And the political group Heritage Motion for America launched a cable and digital advert marketing campaign towards Becerra.
