The Senate on Thursday confirmed Xavier Becerra, a son of Mexican immigrants who grew to become a member of Congress and California’s lawyer basic, as President Biden’s secretary of well being and human companies after a bitter partisan battle that centered on his {qualifications} and help for abortion rights.
The vote was 50 to 49. Senator Susan Collins of Maine was the one Republican to help his affirmation.
Mr. Becerra will turn into the primary Latino to supervise the sprawling company, and can take cost because the Biden administration is working to steer the nation out of the coronavirus pandemic, which has already killed greater than half one million People and has taken a very devastating toll on individuals of shade.
Mr. Biden has stated racial fairness will probably be on the core of his coronavirus response, and individuals who know Mr. Becerra say that well being entry, and well being fairness, will probably be a significant theme of his work. As a member of Congress, he helped write the Inexpensive Care Act, and he pledged in his affirmation hearings to work to strengthen it.
Mr. Biden’s choice of Mr. Becerra was a shock, and it set off an instantaneous debate over whether or not, as a lawyer, he was the right selection to steer a division that oversees high-profile medical businesses together with the Meals and Drug Administration, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and the Nationwide Institutes of Well being. Republicans argued he was unqualified.
When the Senate Finance Committee took up his nomination, it cut up over whether or not to ship the nomination to the total Senate for a flooring vote, which prompted Senator Chuck Schumer, of New York, the bulk chief, to make use of a procedural maneuver to maneuver ahead with Thursday’s affirmation vote.
Democrats argued that Mr. Becerra has deep experience in well being coverage. As lawyer basic, he led 20 states and the District of Columbia in a marketing campaign to guard the well being legislation from being dismantled by his Republican counterparts. He has additionally been vocal within the Democratic Social gathering about preventing for ladies’s well being, together with entry to contraceptives and abortion.
These efforts made him a goal for Republicans and a few Catholic leaders, who repeatedly accused him of suing a gaggle of nuns — a reference to a lawsuit he introduced as California lawyer basic to dam the Trump administration from increasing spiritual exemptions for employers that didn’t wish to present contraceptive protection by way of their insurance coverage. The Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic group, later joined the swimsuit.
Mr. Becerra, in his personal protection, has stated, “I by no means sued a nun — any nuns.” The very fact-checking web site PolitiFact rated the assertion “half true,” noting that the lawsuit did contain a problem on which the Little Sisters had lengthy been a litigant, and that Mr. Becerra continued to press the case after a courtroom allowed them to intervene as a defendant.
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