[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 10, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S1456]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Vote on Regan Nomination

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the vote 
that was set for 5:23 begins right now.
  I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Will the Senate advise and consent to the Regan nomination?
  Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  The result was announced--yeas 66, nays 34, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 116 Ex.]

                                YEAS--66

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Braun
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Collins
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Cramer
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Hyde-Smith
     Kaine
     Kelly
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Lee
     Lujan
     Manchin
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Romney
     Rosen
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Tillis
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                                NAYS--34

     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Ernst
     Hagerty
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lummis
     Marshall
     McConnell
     Moran
     Paul
     Risch
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Toomey
     Tuberville
     Young
  The nomination was confirmed
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ossoff). The majority leader.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that with respect 
to the Regan nomination, the motion to reconsider be considered made 
and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of 
the Senate's action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first, let me explain to the public and 
the Senators what we are doing here. In the bipartisan agreement we 
faced under a 50-50 Senate, the rules say that if there were a tie 
vote, the majority leader has the ability to discharge the nomination 
from committee and then there be a vote on the floor.
  In this case, the nomination of Xavier Becerra to be Secretary of 
Health and Human Services, there was a tie vote in the Finance 
Committee. And what I will be doing in a moment is invoking that rule 
so that there can be 4 hours of debate on the motion, equally divided, 
and we will debate whether Becerra should be approved. Obviously, he 
only needs approval with 50 or 51 votes if the Vice President comes to 
break the tie.
  I will say a brief word here. It is confounding to me that Mr. 
Becerra, Xavier Becerra, did not get some votes from the other side of 
the aisle. He is an eminently qualified member. He was an outstanding 
Member of Congress. He was a very good Attorney General, and he has led 
the charge to keep people's healthcare. When he was Attorney General, 
he was involved in the lawsuits of those who wanted to repeal the ACA. 
And if that is the reason our Republican colleagues are objecting--
because he wants to keep and preserve the Affordable Care Act, which is 
very popular with the American people and very needed--I am surprised. 
It is yesterday's news.
  I know in 2010 a lot of people came here, ``Repeal ACA,'' but as the 
public got to know the ACA, they saw how good it was. And there is not 
much groundswell out there, except among some, the hard right, to 
repeal it. So I am surprised. And then we heard: Well, he is not a 
doctor. I would remind my colleagues that the last nominee for HHS they 
supported was a drug company executive. Are our Republican friends 
saying they would rather have a drug company executive who was not a 
doctor either than somebody who has been a very careful, smart attorney 
who has been fighting for people to get better healthcare? I am 
surprised.
  So I hope that we may get a few of our colleagues to join us tomorrow 
and vote for Mr. Becerra. I don't think it will serve the country well 
or the Republicans well to be so adamantly opposed to him. But let me 
now proceed.

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