[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 17, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1581-S1582]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Xavier Becerra

  Now, Madam President, I rise today to voice my strong support for 
Attorney General Becerra to serve as Secretary of Health and Human 
Services.
  After 4 years of attacks on families' healthcare from President 
Trump, after a year of this pandemic ravaging our Nation, the 
challenges that lie ahead of us, especially when it comes to 
healthcare, are numerous; they are enormous; and they are absolutely 
urgent.
  The uninsured rate, the drug prices, and healthcare costs have all 
skyrocketed. Confidence in our public health agencies have plummeted. 
Already painful health inequities have grown deeper. And this pandemic 
has absolutely devastated communities and pushed our healthcare system 
to the brink.
  COVID-19 has killed over a half a million people, and that number 
continues to rise. When it comes to the hard work ahead to not only end 
this pandemic but rebuild a stronger and fairer country, it is clear we 
need an experienced leader at the Department of Health and Human 
Services. It is clear we don't have a second to waste, and it is clear 
Attorney General Becerra is the right pick for this job.
  His track record shows he has the convictions and the qualifications 
for the task at hand. As a Member of Congress for over two decades, he 
has proven himself a skilled legislator who understands healthcare 
policy. As attorney general of one of the Nation's largest justice 
departments, he has proven himself as a leader capable of heading a 
complex Department like HHS. And throughout all of his work, he has 
proven himself as a champion for patients and public health.
  In Congress, he worked to help more people get quality, affordable 
healthcare by passing the Children's Health Insurance Program and the 
Affordable Care Act. In California, he has fought in court to defend 
the Affordable Care Act and time and time again has gone to court to 
fight for patients, like when he won a $70 million settlement from 
pharmaceutical companies for blocking cheaper generic drugs from 
market, when he won a settlement from opioid manufacturers behind the 
addiction crisis and joined a bipartisan investigation into whether 
opioids were unlawfully marketed, when he sued e-cigarette companies 
from marketing tobacco products to children and led a bipartisan effort 
with the Republican attorney general of Nebraska to protect kids from 
tobacco imagery, or when he worked to investigate companies and hold 
them accountable for putting workers at risk by failing to follow 
COVID-19 safety measures.
  Attorney General Becerra has also worked to acknowledge and address 
issues driving inequities in healthcare. As leader of California's 
Department of Justice, he fought in court against the Trump 
administration rule that undermined care for the LGBTQ community, 
against the administration's constant efforts to undermine reproductive 
healthcare and against its blatant disregard for the well-being of 
migrant children.
  Attorney General Becerra also established a new Bureau of Disability

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Rights at his department, as well as a new office focused on 
environmental justice, including how pollution and public health 
hazards disproportionately hurt communities of color.
  Overall, his record tells a story that is clear, compelling, and 
persuasive. He has fought against pharmaceutical companies, opioid 
manufacturers, tobacco companies and polluters and for more affordable, 
quality healthcare for every patient.
  I have no doubt as Secretary that he will put special interests on 
notice and put patients and public health first and put science, data, 
and experts back in the driver's seat. And he would also bring an 
important perspective to this role as a first-generation college 
student and the first Latino Secretary of Health and Human Services.

  He is exactly the kind of leader we need to make sure we make good on 
the promise of the historic investments we made in the American Rescue 
Plan to end this pandemic--investments to rapidly scale up testing and 
tracing and sequencing so we can identify new strains of COVID and slow 
the spread; investments to quickly and equitably get vaccines into 
arms, an effort that requires not just making vaccines available but 
breaking down barriers to access, promoting vaccine confidence, 
fighting misinformation, and engaging community partners; investments 
to build our public health infrastructure and recruit and train 100,000 
public healthcare workers.
  He will also be a valuable partner to Congress as we work to address 
challenges that predate this pandemic but have been made all the more 
urgent, like rooting out systemic racism and addressing inequities in 
our healthcare system, which have made this pandemic so much more 
damaging and deadly for communities of color; like addressing the 
mental healthcare crisis, which the trauma of this pandemic has made so 
much worse; like fighting the opioid epidemic, a crisis which was 
deadlier than ever this past year; and like expanding access to quality 
affordable childcare, which has become more difficult for families to 
get during this pandemic.
  When this pandemic is over, we will need a strong leader at the 
Department to deal with the aftermath and with so many other 
outstanding issues: bringing down prescription drugs prices; making 
sure healthcare in this country is truly a right, not a privilege; 
undoing 4 years of attacks on reproductive rights and ensuring every 
woman can get reproductive healthcare, regardless of their race or 
income or ZIP Code or disability; lowering our unconscionably high 
maternal mortality rate; reversing the alarming trend of rising youth 
tobacco use; and ensuring the Office of Refugee Resettlement is 
upholding its welfare mission by prioritizing the well-being of every 
child in its care, ensuring they are treated with decency and humanity 
and kindness; and working to place children with suitable sponsors 
quickly and safely.
  We have our work cut out for us, but in Attorney General Becerra, we 
have a Secretary of Health who is up to the job. He has the support not 
only of Democrats but of Republicans, as the Republican attorneys 
general of both Louisiana and Tennessee have spoken highly of their 
experiences working with him.
  I urge every Senator who wants the Biden-Harris administration to 
succeed at ending this pandemic quickly, keeping our families safe, and 
ensuring everyone can get quality affordable healthcare to join me in 
voting to confirm him.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.