[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 17, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1606-S1607]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Nomination of Xavier Becerra
Madam President, our Nation is at a critical moment in our fight
against COVID-19. We have seen declining infections, declining
hospitalizations and deaths. And thanks to three effective vaccines--
and, perhaps, more on the way--and adherence to social distancing and
mask wearing, this new administration has put together a comprehensive
plan to address and defeat this virus, but we aren't out of the woods
yet.
In the United States, we have less than 5 percent of the world's
population and 20 percent of the COVID cases and deaths. We can
continue to see 50,000 to 60,000 new COVID cases every day. We still
have approximately 4,700 people hospitalized because of COVID in the
United States. We still tragically lose 1,200 American lives each day.
While access is improving greatly, we still see too many people
struggling to get a vaccine. If we are going to defeat this virus once
and for all, we need our top public health officials in place on the
job.
Yet our Republican colleagues continue to block the nomination of
Xavier Becerra to head the Department of Health and Human Services, the
chief Federal Agency responsible for our public health response to
COVID. Their campaign to leave the top public health position in this
Nation empty in the midst of a pandemic is unwise. It has to come to an
end.
It has been 3 months--3 months--since President Biden announced that
he would nominate Mr. Becerra to serve as Secretary of Health and Human
Services. A majority of Senators support his nomination. I do. He is a
personal friend and someone I have known for years. He is extremely
competent and ready for the job.
Yet Republican Senators continue to delay Xavier Becerra's nomination
day after day after day. Their objections to him are all over the map.
They say they oppose him because of his support for the Affordable Care
Act. Remember that one--President Obama's Affordable Care Act, which
took half of the people who were uninsured in America and gave them the
protection of health insurance, maybe for the first time in their
lives. It provided health coverage to more than 20 million Americans.
It has been a lifeline to families nationwide.
Most people would say: Thank goodness Mr. Becerra supported it. For a
man who wants to be Secretary of HHS, you would almost insist on that.
And yet Republicans oppose his nomination because of that, and they
also don't like the fact that he was the attorney general of California
and he enforced the State's COVID-19 rules. How can defending public
health rules disqualify a person who wants to be America's top public
health official?
We are in the midst of a lethal pandemic that has claimed nearly
530,000 American lives. More people are infected and dying every day.
Is this any time to play politics with the Department of Health and
Human Services? I don't think so.
Xavier Becerra is an effective manager, a smart, thoughtful,
passionate leader. He is the right person to lead the Department. He
served in the U.S. House of Representatives for more than two decades.
As California's top prosecutor in 2017, he took on the tobacco
companies and the opioid manufacturers--three cheers for him in both
instances--and he helped defend healthcare for families, women, and the
LGBTQ community.
In his confirmation hearing, Mr. Becerra highlighted his commitment
to serving all Americans by expanding access to health insurance,
lowering prescription drug prices, improving rural healthcare, and
addressing racial and ethnic disparities in care. Would you expect
anything less from a man who wants to lead our public health effort?
When he is finally confirmed this week, after this unconscionable
delay--and he will be confirmed--he will be the first Latino to serve
as Secretary of HHS. His historic confirmation will be especially
meaningful at this moment in time when Latinos are disproportionately
affected by the medical and economic impact of COVID.
Delaying his confirmation only hurts our Nation--still struggling to
beat this pandemic; still working to get everyone vaccinated, to get
our schools open, and everybody back to work. Sadly, these Republican
Senators who have led this charge against him are demonstrating
obstructionism at its worst and at the worst moment.
I look forward to confirming Xavier Becerra to be Secretary of Health
and Human Services
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Smith). The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. CARPER. While my colleague Senator Durbin is here, there is a
real irony here to say that our Republican friends are not going to
support Xavier Becerra because of his support of the Affordable Care
Act. One key ingredient of the Affordable Care Act is actually the
exchanges to provide for those who don't have access to coverage from
their employer or some other way to get in a group.
But that was an idea that was introduced in 1993 by 23 Republican
Senators--23 Republican Senators--as an alternative to HillaryCare, and
it never got anywhere. It never went anywhere until an enterprising
Governor from Massachusetts--I heard about him--said: Here is a way one
can enforce this and provide opportunities for the people to get
healthcare coverage that otherwise wouldn't have it. He said this might
work. And they introduced it as RomneyCare in the State of
Massachusetts. And do you know what? It worked. It made healthcare
coverage available to a lot of people, and it helped on the
affordability side too.
For our Republican friends to say that is the reason why--his support
for the ACA, a key ingredient of which is the exchange--is an irony
here. So I hope it is not lost on our friends.
I thank Senator Durbin for those comments.
Like my friend Senator Durbin, I, too, rise in support of Attorney
General Xavier Becerra, a longtime public servant and President Biden's
nominee to be our next Secretary of Health and Human Service.
For a year now, I have been saying to anybody who would listen that
the only way to really get our economy back on track, to put parents
back to work, kids back in the classroom, and life back to normal in
the United States of America is to do all that we can to put this
devastating pandemic in our Nation's rearview mirror. That means
vaccinating as many at-risk Americans as safely and as quickly as
possible.
In fact, under the leadership of our new President, America is
leading the way in the production and the distribution of vaccines. How
about that--leading the world?
Each day we are breaking records on the number of new Americans who
are being vaccinated. After going through one of the darkest periods in
American history, we are finally beginning to see the light at the end
of the tunnel. But as we ramp up for actual distribution throughout
America and help make sure that all people--all people from rural
communities to urban cities--have equitable access to lifesaving
vaccines, we need to make sure that the
[[Page S1607]]
Department of Health and Human Services has the right leader at the
helm going forward. And for my money and my judgment, that leader is
Xavier Becerra. I believe he is the right person for this job at this
point in our Nation's history.
As a key member of the Biden administration, he will work with the
White House. He will work with us in the Congress to tackle the
coronavirus pandemic and to coordinate our Nation's response to it.
Just as he has done throughout his career, he will fight to expand
affordable healthcare, address persistent health disparities, and
restore HHS's mission to protect the health and well-being of all
Americans.
Madam President, I have heard several of my Republican colleagues
calling into question Xavier Becerra's--Attorney General Becerra's
qualifications to serve as HHS Secretary. Obviously they are free to
express their concerns. As Senators, it is our duty to vet and evaluate
Cabinet nominees and make sure that we believe they are going to be
best able to serve the American people. I take the responsibility
seriously. I know our Presiding Officer does as well. But let me set
the record straight, if I could, on Xavier Becerra. I am confident that
with his decades of experience working on healthcare issues in Congress
and as California's attorney general, he will be an invaluable part of
President Biden's administration as we work together to combat the
pandemic nationally.
Some of the critics on the other side of the aisle say: What does he
know about healthcare? Well, as it turns out, he served for I want to
say two decades on the House Committee on Ways and Means. The last time
I checked--you may want to double-check me on this--I think the primary
responsibility of that committee is Medicare, and for somebody who
served that long on that committee, I bet he knows a thing or two about
Medicare. As it turns out, he does.
Throughout his career in public service, Xavier Becerra has shown an
unwavering commitment to protecting and expanding healthcare
availability for millions of American families and workers, especially
those in vulnerable communities who remain underserved.
In the House of Representatives, he was a senior member of the Ways
and Means Committee, which helped to make the Affordable Care Act,
which is based on a Republican idea, I think out of the Heritage
Foundation in 1993 that, as I mentioned earlier, Mitt Romney helped
make a household word in the State of Massachusetts when he was
Governor there. And I think half of the people who had healthcare
coverage--who didn't have it when we created the ACA have it. They have
it today. We cut in half the number of people who don't have access to
healthcare coverage.
In the State of Delaware, the cost of coverage is actually dropping
in the exchanges. It has dropped by I think 19 percent over the last 2
years alone, as market forces are taking place and taking hold.
As attorney general of California, as has been mentioned, he led the
charge for a coalition of States to defend the Affordable Care Act
against multiple attempts by the Trump administration to dismantle this
landmark legislation altogether.
I once asked somebody--I asked him. I said: What is it about your
experience that would suggest you could run a big operation like the
Department of Health and Human Services?
He said: Well, I have run the Department of Justice in California. It
is the second largest Department of Justice in the country, second only
to the Federal Department of Justice.
I forget how many thousands--maybe tens of thousands--of employees
they have, but it is a huge operation in a huge State with a ton of
people.
Xavier Becerra brought together attorneys general from both sides of
the aisle to hold opioid manufacturers accountable for the addiction
crisis that we are still struggling with.
When the pandemic hit, he went to bat for Californians on everything
from protections for our workers from exposure to COVID-19, increasing
transparency in nursing homes, to securing key safeguards for the
rights of frontline healthcare personnel.
His past leadership is a major reason why President Biden is asking
him today to accept the responsibilities of overseeing responses to
many of our Nation's most urgent needs, including the distribution of
COVID-19 vaccinations, restoring the public confidence in vital public
health institutions, and boosting family health and financial security
in the wake of the pandemic.
With so much of the COVID-19 response being executed at the State and
local levels, we are fortunate that President Biden has chosen as his
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, a leader with relevant, on-the-ground,
State-based experience.
As a former State treasurer, former Governor, former chairman of the
National Governors Association, to have somebody with this kind of
State-based experience, what a blessing that would be.
As the head of the largest State department of justice in the Nation,
overseeing thousands of employees, Attorney General Becerra has a
proven track record and the management experience necessary to take on
the massive operations at HHS. He will also make, as Senator Durbin has
mentioned, history as the first Latino American to take on this role,
providing important perspective as Latinos and other minority
communities continue to be disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
As we try to make sure that about a third of the American people who
are saying they are not going to take the vaccine--they don't care;
they are going to take a chance--and a lot of those people are Latino--
wouldn't it be nice to have a Secretary of the Department of Health and
Human Services who could reach out to that community, literally reach
out to them and touch them and convince them that, no, this is
something they should do; they should take this chance and be glad they
did.
Four years ago, this body confirmed President Trump's nominee for
Health and Human Services within just 20 days--20 days from the start
of his administration. We knew then that this role was important to
fill. It took us 20 days.
Now, in the midst of a deadly pandemic, one that has taken the lives
of over 530,000 Americans--a toll that exceeds the number of American
deaths on the battlefields of World War I, World War II, and the
Vietnam war, in which I served--we cannot afford to let another day go
by without confirming Xavier Becerra.
With all of that, I just want to say, colleagues, it is time. It is
over time, and we need to confirm Xavier. I think--in fact, I am
convinced he will do a good job. He will make us proud. We need him.
The President needs him. And with him on board as the leader of HHS, he
can go to work on behalf of the American people and put this pandemic
behind us for good, and we need that day to come soon.
I don't see anybody else waiting to speak. I think maybe I should
suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.