BREAKING: President-Elect Biden To Name California AG Xavier Becerra To Be Next HHS Secretary
On Sunday evening, December 6, the news broke in reports by numerous media outlets, that President-elect Joe Biden will name California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his nominee as the next Health and Human Services Secretary, this week. Becerra would be the first Latino HHS Secretary, and the most senior Latino member of the incoming Biden administration named so far.
“President-elect Joe Biden has picked California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his health secretary, putting a defender of the Affordable Care Act in a leading role to oversee his administration’s coronavirus response, the Associated Press’s Michael Balsamo and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, wrote in their report. “If confirmed by the Senate, Becerra, 62, will be the first Latino to head the Department of Health and Human Services, a $1-trillion-plus agency with 80,000 employees and a portfolio that includes drugs and vaccines, leading-edge medical research and health insurance programs covering more than 130 million Americans. As California’s attorney general, Becerra has led the coalition of Democratic states defending ‘Obamacare’ from the Trump administration’s latest effort to overturn it, a legal case awaiting a Supreme Court decision next year.”
Xavier Becerra assumed the California Attorney General office on January 24, 2017. Previously, he had been a Democratic congressman from January 1993 through January 2017. The area of Southern California that he represented shifted twice geographically because of redistricting, but the 34 Congressional District, as the Wikipedia entryth on that district notes, “is almost entirely within the City of Los Angeles and includes the following neighborhoods in Central, East and Northeast Los Angeles: Boyle Heights, Chinatown, City Terrace, Cypress Park, Downtown Los Angeles, Eagle Rock, El Sereno, Garvanza, Glassell Park, Highland Park, Koreatown, Little Bangladesh, Little Tokyo, Lincoln Heights, Montecito Heights, Monterey Hills, Mount Washington and Westlake.” Becerra was also Chair of the House Democratic Caucus from 2013 through 2017.
“Mr. Becerra became Mr. Biden’s clear choice only over the last few days, according to people familiar with the transition’s deliberations, and was a surprise,” The New York Times’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Michael D. Shear wrote in their report. “He has carved out a profile more on the issues of criminal justice, immigration and tax policy, and he was long thought to be a candidate for attorney general. But as attorney general in California, he led legal efforts on health care, including seeking to protect the Affordable Care Act from being dismantled by Republican attorneys general. He has also been a leading voice in the Democratic Party for women’s health.”
Stolberg and Shear noted that, “If confirmed, he will immediately face a daunting task in leading the department at a critical moment during a pandemic that has killed more than 281,000 people in the United States — and one that has taken a particularly devastating toll on people of color. Mr. Becerra, 62, served 12 terms in Congress, representing Los Angeles, before becoming the attorney general of his home state in 2017. He is the first Latino to hold that office, and while in Congress he was the first Latino to serve as a member of the Ways and Means Committee. He also led the House Democratic Caucus, which gave him a powerful leadership post.”
With regard to his background, Stolberg and Shear wrote that, “Born in Sacramento, Mr. Becerra grew up in a working-class family; his mother emigrated from Mexico. Neither of his parents “had much formal schooling,” according to an official, and he was the first in his family to graduate from college. He attended Stanford as an undergraduate and received his law degree there in 1984. While in Congress, he was a fierce advocate for the Latino community, and became deeply involved in efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration system. He also promoted a national museum devoted to exploring the culture and history of American Latinos. The House voted this year to create such a museum.”
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny and Kate Sullivan noted in their report that “Becerra was also under consideration to serve as US attorney general, CNN previously reported. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm had also been mentioned as potential contenders for the post, CNN previously reported.” Further, Zeleny and Sullivan reported, “Biden had been facing pressure from members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to nominate Lujan Grisham, who is the first Democratic Latina to be elected governor in the United States, to lead HHS. Members of the caucus have also been pushing for either Becerra or Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez to serve as US attorney general. The push has been part of a broader effort to pressure Biden to name multiple Latino or Latina nominees to top posts in his administration.”
Zeleny and Sullivan also reported that “Members of the caucus also met with leaders of Biden's transition team last week and expressed frustration with how they believe Lujan Grisham had been treated in the Cabinet selection process. They took issue with what they said were leaks from the transition team about the governor turning down a Cabinet position to lead the Department of Interior, and said the leaks had the effect of being embarrassing for the governor.” And, they wrote, “Biden's transition team is expected to announce key members of the President-elect's health team early this week, incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.”
The Los Angeles Times’s Noam N. Levey, Evan Halper, and Patrick McGreevy wrote that “Becerra, 62, a rising star in California politics, has become one of the most important defenders of the Affordable Care Act, leading the fight to preserve the landmark law against efforts by the Trump administration and conservative states to convince federal courts to repeal it. Becerra also has carved out an increasingly important role confronting healthcare costs, using his position to challenge pricing practices at Sutter Health, one of California’s most powerful medical systems. And he has become a leading champion of reproductive health, going to court repeatedly to challenge Trump administration efforts to scale back women’s access to abortion services and contraceptive coverage.”
Levey, Halper, and McGreevy added that “Latino advocacy groups, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, have been pushing Biden to pick a Latino to fill a prominent Cabinet position. Many had advocated for Becerra, though New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham was considered a front-runner for HHS for some time. News of Becerra’s selection drew swift praise from politicians, healthcare leaders and patient advocates,” they added, quoting Rep. Filemon Vela (D.-Texas), who said in a statement that “This pandemic has brought a glaring light to the health inequities in our country. … Having an individual who not only has outstanding qualifications, but also understands the needs of minority communities is imperative as our country moves forward in its fight against the pandemic.”
In addition, they noted that “Peter Lee, who heads California’s insurance marketplace, Covered California, lauded Becerra’s work in Congress and as attorney general to defend access to affordable medical care.” “It’s a great choice,” Lee told the L.A. Times. “He is a thoughtful, strategic leader who gets the importance of not only expanding healthcare coverage, but also addressing high costs for patients.”
“The conclusion of a turbulent process”
POLITICO’s Tyler Pager, Adam Cancryn, and Alice Miranda Ollstein wrote on Sunday evening that “Biden’s decision to choose Becerra for the top health post marks the conclusion of a turbulent process, in which the Biden camp had to scramble to fill one of the administration's leading health positions as they prepare to take on the country’s worst health crisis in more than a century. The president-elect team’s focus on setting up a pandemic response team within the White House has raised questions about the role the health secretary will play in the Biden administration, according to four people familiar with the process, creating additional uncertainty around the Cabinet post,” They wrote.
Further, they wrote, “Becerra emerged as a top contender late in the process after Biden’s team considered a number of other candidates including former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy — who will be reprising that role in the Biden administration — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo. The Biden transition did not respond to a request for comment.” And, they wrote, “The Biden team has been planning to announce a slate of top health positions this week, which will include Jeff Zients as the coronavirus coordinator and Murthy as surgeon general. Murthy will take on an expanded portfolio, working closely with Zients on the coronavirus response. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor at Yale who is an expert on health care inequality, will have a senior role focused on health disparities. That announcement may be pushed back because of the delay in selecting Becerra.”
Pager, Cancryn, and Ollstein went on to state that, “At one point last week, plans were in place for Biden to announce Raimondo as his HHS nominee. The president-elect never directly offered the position to Raimondo, but people close to him indicated the job was hers if she wanted it, and preparations were underway with the assumption she would fill the role, according to three people familiar with the process. But then Raimondo made a public announcement Thursday, saying she would not be Biden’s health secretary. Josh Block, a spokesman for Raimondo, pushed back against the notion that Raimondo turned down the Biden staff, saying her focus remained on Rhode Island.” Either way, this was not the first time that a President-elect needed to switch gears after settling on an initial HHS Secretary. The POLITICO reporters referenced What had happened in December 2007, when then-President-elect Obama had initially chosen Tom Daschle to be HHS Secretary, but then, Daschle withdrew over ethics concerns, and Kathleen Sebelius took the job instead.
Democrats in Congress will be aware of the fact that California Attorney General Becerra has been in the forefront of defending the Affordable Care Act against attempts to have it ended by the U.S. Supreme Court. A May 6 press release from his office stated that “California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, leading a coalition of 20 states and D.C., today filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court defending the Affordable Care Act (ACA) against efforts by the Trump Administration and the state of Texas to repeal the entire ACA, putting the healthcare of tens of millions of Americans at risk. The Court agreed to review a recent Fifth Circuit decision that held the ACA’s individual mandate unconstitutional and called into question whether the remaining provisions of the law could still stand—jeopardizing Medicaid expansion, critical public health programs that help fight COVID-19, and subsidies that help working families access care, among countless others. Critically, this decision threatens healthcare coverage protections for 133 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, and would allow health insurance companies to deny individuals care or charge more based on their health status.”
“It’s unconscionable that the Trump Administration continues its attack on healthcare, just when many Americans across the country need it most,” Becerra said in a statement contained in the press release. “A global pandemic is the time to wake up and protect the lives of our loved ones, yet all we see from the President's team is repeal without replace. The ACA is the backbone of our healthcare system, making doctor’s visits and care possible for millions of people, while providing critical public health funds for our communities to fight infectious diseases like the coronavirus. Under this hallmark law, more than 133 million people have been guaranteed healthcare protections, who could have been denied coverage entirely pre-ACA. We can’t afford to return to those days, so we’re marching forward at the Supreme Court determined to save the ACA and American lives."
The press release went on to note that “The lawsuit, originally filed by a Texas-led coalition, and later supported by the Trump Administration, argued that Congress rendered the ACA’s individual mandate unconstitutional when it reduced the penalty for forgoing coverage to $0. They further argued that the rest of the ACA should be held invalid as a result of that change. California’s coalition defended the ACA in its entirety, supported by a bipartisan group of amici including scholars, economists, public health experts, hospital and provider associations, patient groups, counties, cities, and more. While the Fifth Circuit held that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, it sidestepped the further question as to the validity of the ACA’s remaining provisions. Attorney General Becerra’s coalition petitioned the Supreme Court for review in order to protect Americans’ healthcare and resolve the uncertainty created by the Fifth Circuit decision.”
