[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 49 (Tuesday, March 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1542-S1543]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Xavier Becerra

  Mr. COTTON. Madam President, the Senate is considering the nomination 
of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be Secretary of the 
Department of Health and Human Services. Without question, the Senate 
should reject this nomination.
  In the midst of this pandemic, America deserves a Health Secretary 
who is solely--solely focused on getting shots in arms, getting kids 
back to school, and getting parents back to work. But that is not Mr. 
Becerra.
  Over his long career in politics, his primary passion has been 
ramming through a radical, far-left agenda and using the power of his 
office to persecute his political enemies.
  Mr. Becerra would be in charge of administering the Nation's health 
programs, but he has virtually no experience or expertise in 
healthcare. His only experience responding to the pandemic, as far as I 
can tell, has been his enforcement of California's excessive and 
traumatizing lockdowns over the last year.
  Mr. Becerra has been California's top cop, overseeing the most 
draconian and unconstitutional series of lockdowns anywhere in our 
country. He has shuttered churches while liquor stores and marijuana 
dispensaries remain open. He has destroyed small, family-owned 
businesses while enriching massive corporations.
  In the false name of public health, he has rigorously enforced 
unscientific and unproductive measures that have ruined the lives of 
Californians. Today, California's unemployment rate stands at 9 
percent--45 percent higher than the national average, nearly two times 
higher than our unemployment rate in Arkansas. That is the result of 
bad policy. And jobless Californians have Xavier Becerra and Gavin 
Newsom to thank for their struggles.
  If Mr. Becerra's record as attorney general is any indication, every 
American should be alarmed by how this nominee would fight the 
pandemic--not with science, compassion, or common sense but with 
crushing political force. Few Americans believe that California's 
lockdown commissar deserves a promotion. Unfortunately, the Senate may 
just give him one.
  Mr. Becerra is also a vocal advocate for the socialist takeover of 
healthcare

[[Page S1543]]

known euphemistically as Medicare for All. He supports destroying union 
healthcare plans, crushing Medicare Advantage, and ultimately taking 
away your health insurance on the job, which covers, I would add, 158 
million Americans. This disastrous boondoggle would cost $34 trillion 
and would inevitably result in the rationing of care, hurting senior 
citizens most of all. Medicare for All would, in reality, result in 
Medicare for None.
  Last year, President Biden acknowledged that Medicare for All would 
yield massive tax hikes for middle-class families. Yet Joe Biden 
selected a supporter of this disastrous Medicare for All plan to be his 
top Cabinet official on healthcare.
  And, of course, Mr. Becerra wouldn't be a Biden administration 
nominee if he didn't also support open borders. But he has gone further 
on open borders than even most of the other Biden administration 
officials, saying out loud what so many Democrats silently believe. He 
has openly argued for the decriminalization of illegal immigration. He 
has even stated with a straight face that illegal immigration does 
absolutely no harm at all, directly or indirectly, to American 
citizens. If Mr. Becerra really believes that, he is hopelessly naive 
and needs to get out a little more.
  He can start by talking to the millions of Americans who are out of 
work or whose wages have stagnated thanks to competition from illegal 
aliens. He could also visit the graves of thousands of Americans killed 
by Mexican drugs and terrorized by gangs like MS-13. If confirmed, Mr. 
Becerra would oversee our Nation's response to the drug crisis and the 
maintenance of many migrant detention facilities. His radical open 
borders advocacy would make matters worse on both fronts. It would also 
fuel the ever-growing surge of unvetted, untested, and unvaccinated 
illegal aliens into our Nation, spreading the coronavirus in our 
communities just as it looks like we are about to turn the corner on 
this pandemic.

  Finally, Mr. Becerra holds opinions on abortion that are 
unacceptable, unjust, and far outside the mainstream. As a Member of 
Congress, he voted in favor of partial-birth abortion--a disturbing and 
deadly procedure performed in the very last stages of pregnancy. As 
California's attorney general, he tried to destroy anyone who opposed 
his extreme position on this issue. He brought 15 felony charges 
against pro-life, undercover journalists who exposed Planned 
Parenthood's illegal and disgusting sale of baby body parts--a move 
that even the liberal Los Angeles Times called ``disturbingly 
aggressive.'' He defended an unconstitutional law that would have 
forced pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to advertise for abortions, 
the very thing it is their mission to oppose--something that the U.S. 
Supreme Court called a ``serious threat'' to freedom of speech.
  He even sued to force an order of nuns, the Little Sisters of the 
Poor, to purchase healthcare coverage that violated their sincerely 
held religious beliefs. And when he was asked about all of this in the 
Senate, like any bully, he tried to cover it up, denying that he sued 
the Little Sisters at all. If he will sue the Little Sisters, then what 
will he do to you and your family?
  A few of my colleagues have indicated that they will vote for Mr. 
Becerra, despite disagreeing with these radical views. Perhaps they 
think those are just his personal beliefs, that he won't practice what 
he preaches. Perhaps they think he won't undermine pro-life protections 
like the Hyde Amendment and use his office to persecute Catholic nuns. 
I would ask those colleagues to look at Mr. Becerra's record, not the 
words he utters to get their vote, and then to reconsider their support 
because any honest assessment will show that Xavier Becerra is a 
partisan cultural warrior who has consistently abused his office to 
punish his enemies and to enact far-left policies in Congress and in 
California.
  If the Senate confirms his nomination, they will be empowering Mr. 
Becerra to bring California's lockdowns, lawsuits, and liberal policies 
to all of our 50 States, and that would be a disaster for our country.
  I will close with a simple request for President Biden, who 
campaigned on unity and ending a terrible pandemic: Merely do what you 
said you would do. Send us a nominee who will unify the country and 
bring consensus, not one who will scrape by on the slimmest of 
majorities. Send us a nominee who is actually a healthcare expert, and 
the Senate will gladly consider them. Xavier Becerra is not that 
nominee, and the Senate should reject his nomination resoundingly.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Murphy). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.