[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 17, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1590-S1594]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Nomination of Xavier Becerra
Mr. DAINES. Madam President, I rise to share my objections to the
nomination of Xavier Becerra to be Secretary of Health and Human
Services.
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With $1.3 trillion of spending in Health and Human Services, that
Department has the largest budget of the entire executive branch. In
fact, if we were to compare the budget--the budget of HHS to other
nation's GDPs--HHS, in fact, would rank among the top 10 in the world.
The size of this Department is significant, and the responsibility is
even greater.
Whoever oversees this Department has a big impact on our country, our
economy, and the lives of all Americans, including those of the unborn.
This is exactly why I am deeply concerned with President Biden's pick
of Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead HHS. Mr. Becerra has spent
his career propagating far-left ideology and supporting divisive
policies that don't resonate with the majority of Americans.
The Secretary of HHS has massive authority to steer the future of
healthcare in our country, and someone who has made a career out of
defending the abortion industry and promoting other liberal policies,
like free healthcare for illegal immigrants, should not be at the helm
of this Department.
I am concerned that Attorney General Becerra will use the power of
this Agency to overstep and impose his radical liberal agenda on
millions of Americans. This administration decidedly, intentionally,
chose a nominee who has repeatedly attacked the religious freedoms of
so many Americans, a nominee who has aggressively pushed a very pro-
abortion agenda, a nominee who supports a complete takeover by the
government of our healthcare, a nominee who advocates for illegal
immigrants to receive taxpayer-funded healthcare.
How do these qualities make Attorney General Becerra the right person
to head Health and Human Services? It just doesn't make sense to so
many in our country. It is just another sign that this, unfortunately,
is a far-left administration that is outside the mainstream.
Especially now, during a pandemic, it is critical that all Americans
can trust whoever holds this position. It is critical that the leader
of this massive Department will operate as a good steward of Federal
health programs and not use his post to impose a government takeover of
healthcare and to eradicate job-based coverage for millions of
Americans.
Xavier Becerra is, unfortunately, not that person. He has built his
career defending some of the very most extreme stances in our society,
and we can expect that he will only take things further at HHS.
When it comes to abortion, Attorney General Becerra doesn't believe
there should be any restrictions--not one. In fact, I had the chance to
ask Mr. Becerra some questions a couple of weeks ago at a hearing. I
asked if he would support a ban on the lethal discrimination of babies
diagnosed with Down syndrome, or, perhaps, what about banning sex-
selective abortions, or, at least, a ban on partial birth abortions.
His refusal to answer spoke volumes. His inability to name even one
restriction that he might think about putting on abortion is chilling.
Mr. Becerra's views on abortion even go a step further. He has
repeatedly bullied and harassed Americans who respect the sanctity of
life, like the Little Sisters of the Poor. This order of nuns has
dedicated their lives to serving the less fortunate, and under their
Catholic faith, they do not believe in providing abortions or
contraceptives.
Attorney General Becerra litigated against these nuns in court and
attempted to revoke an exemption that protects religious groups from
providing contraceptives, and that goes against their religious
beliefs. He has literally sued to impose crippling fines on Catholic
nuns for remaining true to their religious believes--crippling fines on
nuns--a horrendous attack on Americans' constitutional right to
religious freedom.
He has stated that crossing the border illegally should be
decriminalized. Let me say that again. He has stated that crossing the
border illegally should be decriminalized. No wonder we are seeing a
crisis on our southern border. He has repeatedly pushed for illegal
immigrants to receive health benefits on the taxpayers' dime.
As we are seeing Biden's border crisis play out, it is even more
alarming that one of his nominees would seek to incentivize illegal
border crossings even more. I guess you could say this is all part of
Biden's ``America Last'' agenda, but as Secretary of Health and Human
Services, Xavier Becerra would have the massive ability to impose a
pro-abortion, anti-religious freedom, socialist healthcare agenda. His
nomination highlights just how extreme--sadly, how extreme--the Biden
administration really is. These views fail to represent the majority of
Americans and have no place at the head of the largest Department of
our executive branch.
I urge my colleagues to consider the impact that Mr. Becerra would
have as the head of Health and Human Services and to vote against his
confirmation. Rather, we must stand up for life, for religious freedom,
an ``America First'' agenda and against Mr. Becerra's nomination.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
Mr. LEE. Madam President, the stated mission of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services is ``to enhance the health and well-being
of all Americans.'' It is a laudable goal. The HHS Secretary is, thus,
charged with overseeing all government healthcare and social services
and protecting the health and the rights of the American people, a
worthy goal, important job. Unfortunately, the history of the nominee
before us, Mr. Xavier Becerra, poses grave concerns to our ability to
carry out this goal and to our ability to oversee an Agency with such
vast, far-reaching responsibilities.
First, Mr. Becerra has repeatedly been on the record for wanting to
eliminate private health insurance for millions of Americans even at a
time when families need affordable, effective, and flexible healthcare
and when healthcare workers need jobs perhaps now more than ever. What
is more concerning, however, is that, while in public office, Mr.
Becerra has repeatedly, deliberately undermined Americans'
constitutional rights and waged political warfare on those who happen
to disagree with his views.
Take, for example, his views on abortion. Instead of supporting laws
that protect and sustain the life and health of American women and
unborn children, Mr. Becerra has supported laws that violently hurt
them in his endorsing legal abortion up until and even during the
moment of birth.
As Attorney General of the State of California, he brought 15 felony
charges against a reporter for exposing Planned Parenthood's role in
trafficking the body parts of aborted babies--a prosecution that even
the Los Angeles Times described as ``disturbing overreach.''
He defended a California law that required pro-life pregnancy centers
to advertise for State-funded abortion clinics, a law that so
egregiously violated free speech that the Supreme Court ruled it
unconstitutional, which, of course, it was and is.
Not only that, but he has consistently and flagrantly taken hostile
actions against the free exercise of religion. Perhaps the worst
example of this can be found in his legal persecution of the Little
Sisters of the Poor. Now, this is a religious order of Catholic nuns
that cares for the elderly poor. Becerra waged a lengthy, difficult
battle to force the sisters--again, this is an order of nuns--to pay
for abortion drugs and contraception in their health insurance plan
even though doing so violates their beliefs and even though they are
nuns.
Even after the Supreme Court ruled for the Little Sisters of the Poor
in 2016 under a separate case and after the Trump administration
granted them full conscience protections in 2017, Mr. Becerra still
sued the Trump administration in an attempt to pierce those
protections. Again, he wasn't comfortable with letting those
protections stand in place with respect to the Little Sisters of the
Poor. No. He was determined, even still, to make sure that they
couldn't live according to their own religious beliefs and their
teachings.
During the pandemic, Becerra was the legal architect of some of the
country's most strident, sweeping, and brazenly unconstitutional
restrictions on church and on worship services, some of which were
struck down by the Supreme Court last month, and he even
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tried to prevent COVID relief funds from going to religious and other
private schools.
Our Founders established the principle of religious liberty--the
natural right of all human beings to freely hold and live out their
religious beliefs--because they understood that man is not free unless
his conscience is free. They thought that this principle was so
important, so fundamental, that it was the first freedom articulated in
the very First Amendment to the Constitution. In doing so, they sought
to defend and preserve the space of our deepest convictions, a space
upon which a State cannot and must never encroach
In practice, that has meant that the government's job is not to tell
people what to believe or how to discharge their religious duties but
to protect the space for all people of all faiths--and of no faith at
all for that matter--to seek truth and to order their lives
accordingly.
The American people deserve a leader at the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services who will uphold and strengthen this monumental
tradition. They deserve a leader who will protect their fundamental
rights, not trample them. Unfortunately, tragically, the record of this
nominee demonstrates serious threats to the rights and the health and
the well-being of the American people. They deserve better. In good
conscience, I cannot support the nomination of Mr. Becerra.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, it appears that President Biden
arrived at the White House prepared and willing to grant himself and
his administration a mandate that American voters didn't agree to give
him.
His party lost ground in the House, split the Senate, and maintained
their trailing minority of governorships, but they seem to ignore that.
In his first 50 days, he signed 34 Executive orders--more than anyone
in history. He dismantled existing immigration controls, threatened
protections for small businesses against the radical climate agenda,
and destroyed thousands of jobs and the potential for greater energy
security promised by the Keystone XL Pipeline project.
Meanwhile, my Democratic colleagues got busy laying the groundwork to
transform not only the Senate into a majoritarian institution but also
to radically transform the country. They used budget reconciliation to
ram through a $1.9 trillion bailout bill without a single Republican
vote--the largest spending bill in our Nation's history--and now they
are reversing their own positions on the filibuster to avoid debate on
radical immigration reform, the Equality Act, and an already infamous
bill that would federalize elections. They just don't want to talk
about these things--just do it.
The more people learn about what the Biden White House is up to the
more questions they have for those of us who represent them.
Some of my Democratic friends in Tennessee say to me: I may have
voted for Joe Biden, but I did not vote for this.
They do not want to radically change the country. They do not want to
be tied to legislation that has a nice-sounding name but that does the
exact opposite of what the Biden administration would have you believe
that it would accomplish.
They have noticed that the President's Cabinet picks have come to
their confirmation hearings ready and willing to move the goalposts
away from the Constitution and the rule of law in order to accommodate
their radical agenda.
Last week, this body voted to discharge from committee Xavier
Becerra's nomination to the Health and Human Services Secretary
position. I voted no, and I will vote no on his confirmation as well,
not only because he is unqualified and has no experience in
healthcare--Middle Tennessee has more than 100,000 individuals who are
employed in the healthcare industry, and all, all are more qualified in
healthcare than Xavier Becerra--and not only because his radical views
shock just about everyone who speaks to me about him. Oh, yes, it was a
topic of conversation at church on Sunday but also because, time and
again, he has abused his power and weaponized the full force of the
government against people whose deeply held, personal, political, and
religious views don't align with his own: submit, conform, or else.
It is in the nature of our job as legislators to recognize that, yes,
elections do have consequences and that, yes, the President has a right
to assemble his own Cabinet, but we cannot be expected to green-light a
nominee who has so little patience for diversity--diversity of thought,
diversity of opinions--that his first and only instinct is to destroy
the diversity: Barrel in. Burn it to the ground. Build it back in their
own image. That is not what the American people want President Biden
and his administration to do, but that is what they are getting with
this nominee.
I strongly oppose Xavier Becerra's nomination, as I have from the
start, and I would urge my colleagues to consider what you will be
approving if you vote in favor of this confirmation: radically anti-
life, radically anti-religion, radically anti-border security,
radically anti-free speech, radically unqualified to lead.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CRUZ. Madam President, I rise to oppose the nomination of Xavier
Becerra for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
There are, unfortunately, numerous nominees in the Biden
administration who are either extreme or unqualified for the positions
for which they have been nominated, but of all of those nominees, I
believe Mr. Becerra is the single worst Cabinet nominee put forward by
Joe Biden to serve in the Cabinet.
President Biden has told this country repeatedly that his top
priority is defeating the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Health
and Human Services is on the frontline in fighting COVID-19. Mr.
Becerra, by any measure, is woefully unqualified to lead that
Department.
Mr. Becerra is not a doctor. Mr. Becerra is not a scientist. Mr.
Becerra has no healthcare experience whatsoever. He has no medical
experience whatsoever. He has no experience in virology. He has no
experience with pharmaceuticals. He has no experience running a State
or local healthcare agency. He has no experience in logistics. The
Department of HHS is in the process of distributing and administering
hundreds of millions of vaccines. Mr. Becerra has never so much as
distributed french fries at a McDonald's.
Mr. Becerra's only qualification and, indeed, the qualification that
earned him this nomination is he is a radical, leftwing trial attorney.
If a Republican President had nominated as the head of the Health and
Human Services Agency someone with zero healthcare experience, zero
medical experience, zero pharmaceutical experience in the midst of a
global pandemic, that Republican President would have been laughed out
of the room.
If a Republican President had done that, all of the Democrats would
have been lined up here thundering: This is a President that doesn't
care about science. We would have heard Democrats telling us: This is a
President for whom defeating COVID-19 is not a priority, is not
serious.
``This is a President,'' our Democratic colleagues would have told
us, ``who puts partisan priorities above defeating the public health
menace of COVID-19. This is a President who is more concerned about
appeasing his radical base than he is about protecting the public
health and safety of Americans.''
Had a Republican President nominated a nominee as unqualified as Mr.
Becerra, I feel confident the Democrats would not have been alone. We
would see multiple Republican Senators standing up, saying: No. We
should actually have an HHS Secretary who knows something about
science. We should have an HHS Secretary who knows something about
medicine, something about pharmaceuticals.
I would note, by the way, President Trump nominated two HHS
Secretaries. The first, Dr. Tom Price, was a medical doctor; the
second, Alex Azar, was president of a major pharmaceutical company in
the United States. Both had years and even decades of healthcare
experience.
As best I can tell, Xavier Becerra's only experience with healthcare
is
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suing the Little Sisters of the Poor. Frankly, it should be a joke.
If a Republican President did this, a Republican Senate would
discover the backbone to stand up and oppose it. And what I would say
is sad is not a single Democrat is willing to stand up to Joe Biden and
say: No. Try again. It is a pandemic. Over a half million Americans
have died. How about putting someone at HHS that knows something about
healthcare?
I will tell you right now, every Senator that supports this
confirmation, when they go home, should be prepared to answer to their
constituents--should be prepared to answer when their constituents say:
Why did you vote to confirm a guy at HHS who doesn't know anything
about science or healthcare or medicine? Why, in the middle of a
pandemic, did you put in a radical, leftwing trial lawyer instead of
someone that could help us beat this pandemic?
And for all the Democratic Senators who love to intone gravely
``Listen to the science,'' that is actually--that sentiment is correct.
We should listen to the science, which means we should have someone
leading HHS who knows something about science
My career, as a lawyer, has been litigating cases before the U.S.
Supreme Court. If a President asked me to lead the Department of HHS in
the midst of a pandemic, I would tell that President: With all due
respect, I don't have the professional experience or expertise to do
that job. There are other jobs for which I would be qualified, but in a
pandemic, the Health and Human Services Department should have someone
who knows a damn thing about healthcare.
Instead of knowing anything about science or medicine or viruses or
virology or immunizations, what Mr. Becerra does know about is
persecuting citizens who don't share his radical, leftwing ideology.
Mr. Becerra, as attorney general of California, has demonstrated a
consistent pattern of contempt for privacy. While attorney general, he
used his partisan power to overcome the individual privacy rights of
California. As attorney general, he demanded that thousands of
registered charities annually disclose to his offices the names and
addresses of major donors, even though California law didn't require
that. But he used government power to violate their right to privacy.
Then what did he do? Did he keep it private for law enforcement
purposes to examine irregularities? No. Instead, he published the
information from nearly 2,000 organizations, subjecting donors and
those nonprofits to harassment and abuse.
Healthcare issues are personal. They are sensitive. When you and I go
to the doctor, we don't expect our doctor to share our personal
healthcare details with the world. Joe Biden has said to the American
people: We are going to put someone in charge of the Health and Human
Services Department who doesn't care about privacy and has a record of
ignoring your right to privacy.
Later this year, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether Mr.
Becerra's invasion of privacy violated the First Amendment to the
Constitution. While his disregard for privacy is before the Supreme
Court, what did Joe Biden do? He said: Let's put him in charge of
healthcare in this country.
A third reason Mr. Becerra's nomination is so concerning concerns
conscience protections.
The next HHS Secretary will be responsible for upholding the
conscience protections that are written into Federal law to protect the
rights of people of faith, whatever your faith--whether you are
Christian or Jewish or Muslim or whatever your faith might be, the
right of professionals, of citizens under the First Amendment to live
according to their faith.
But Mr. Becerra, as attorney general, aggressively defended a
California law that forced pro-life groups to advertise for abortion, a
law that the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional under the First
Amendment.
Think about that for a second. He was so radical in going after and
persecuting conscience rights, he wanted pro-life groups to advertise
for abortion, and it took the U.S. Supreme Court to strike it down and
say: That is unconstitutional. Joe Biden wants him to bring the same
heavyhanded zealotry to the Health and Human Services Department.
And Mr. Becerra has not shown that it is just free speech that he has
antagonism to, but it is religious liberty as well. Mr. Becerra has
defended California's targeting of churches holding indoor services.
The State of California concluded that if you go to an indoor service
at a church and you pray or you sing or you worship, you are a public
health menace. But if you go to a protest, if you go to other secular
activities where the name of God is not invoked, then, magically, this
virus is not contagious. It is ludicrous. It was facially absurd. It
was driven by an unconstitutional animus toward people of faith, and it
took the U.S. Supreme Court to strike it down and to say the policy
that Mr. Becerra was defending is unconstitutional. Government cannot
target people of faith.
So you have got a nominee with no healthcare experience, no medical
experience, no scientific experience, but a record of being a radical,
persecuting those with whom he disagrees, who has repeatedly gone
before the U.S. Supreme Court and lost over and over again for
violating the First Amendment, for violating free speech, for violating
religious liberty. He is now currently before the Supreme Court for
violating the privacy rights of Californians.
Do you want an HHS Secretary who doesn't respect your privacy, who
doesn't respect your free speech or religious liberty? Do you want an
HHS Secretary who is not qualified to draw blood or give a shot, who
doesn't know how to distribute vaccines, who has never distributed
anything?
If nominations and confirmations were based on the merits, were based
on qualification to serve, Mr. Becerra's nomination would be rejected
by this Senate by a vote of 100 to nothing. The fact that that is
unlikely to happen and that every Democrat will march lockstep with the
Biden administration to confirm a nominee who has no healthcare
experience whatsoever in the midst of a global pandemic show just how
profoundly partisan and radicalized today's Democratic Party is.
I believe all of us should be united in demanding a Health and Human
Services Secretary who is actually qualified to protect our health and
defeat this pandemic.
I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote against this
nomination
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I rise to speak this afternoon in support
of the nomination of Xavier Becerra to serve as the next Secretary of
Health and Human Services.
President Biden nominated Mr. Becerra, who currently serves as the
attorney general of the State of California. Prior to his service in
State government for the people of California, he served in the House
of Representatives, representing a district in Los Angeles for 12
terms. He is someone I got to know in those years, especially in the
debates about healthcare, which I will speak about in a moment.
But when a person is nominated to be a member of any Cabinet, they
bring with them not just their experience but their life story, and
Attorney General Becerra's story is a great American story. His own
story and that of his family is a great American story, a story of hard
work and sacrifice, overcoming obstacles, achieving excellence, not
only in his time in school and his academic record but also excellence
in his public service as he discharges the duties of the offices that
he has held.
I mentioned that I knew him in the years we were debating healthcare
here in Washington when he was a Member of the House. But just since
his nomination, I met with him and questioned him closely on matters
that are important to me and the people of Pennsylvania. I also asked
him questions in not one but two--two--hearings because he just happens
to be nominated to a Cabinet position where the confirmation is
considered by two Senate committees, the Finance Committee and the
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, so I had the chance
to question him in both hearings, both committees.
Through these conversations and based upon his long and distinguished
record of public service, Attorney General Becerra has demonstrated
that he
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is the kind of leader our Nation needs at HHS during this challenging
time.
He is a proven leader who spent his career fighting to expand
healthcare--to expand it--protecting both patients and consumers and
working to strengthen both Medicare and Medicaid.
As a Congressman, as I mentioned, he was instrumental in drafting and
working to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the so-
called ACA. And as California's attorney general, he has led the fight
to protect it.
Now, my view of the disagreement on the other side of the aisle is
just that. This is someone who worked as a Member of Congress and then
has worked as attorney general to pass and then uphold the ACA.
On the other side of the aisle, they don't like that because they
have been committed as a party here in the Senate and in the House--
both Republican caucuses have been committed to two things on
healthcare: destroying the ACA, which means destroying all protections
for preexisting conditions and--it is important to add this--they have
been dedicated to ending--not limiting, not cutting back--ending
Medicaid expansion, which, of course, accounted for most of the
healthcare gains. Millions of Americans have healthcare today because
of the expansion of Medicaid. It is the official position of the
Republican Party to end that--to say to all those millions of
Americans: You don't deserve healthcare coverage. That is their
position based upon what they have supported in bill after bill that
came before the Senate. We know that. That is a fact. And until they
move away from that position, they will try to take down the nomination
of or oppose anyone who wants to uphold the ACA, uphold all protections
for preexisting conditions, uphold and support the expansion of
Medicaid, one of the best expansions of healthcare in American history,
not just recent history, in all of American history.
So I would support Attorney General Becerra just based upon what he
has done on healthcare because it happens to be in the best interests
of the American people to expand healthcare and the best interests of
the people I represent.
I don't come across many people in Pennsylvania coming up to me,
saying: I want you to lessen the number of people in the United States
or in my State that have healthcare. I want you to cut that back. I
want you to cut back on the Medicaid Program--which folks on the other
side of the aisle want to do as well.
They not only want to end Medicaid expansion--end it completely--they
want to cut the Medicaid Program by hundreds of billions of dollars
over 10 years. That is their official position. It has been their
position for years to cut the Medicaid Program and to end Medicaid
expansion--cut the Medicaid Program by hundreds of billions of dollars.
So if you are against that, they are going to be opposing you, whether
it is for confirmation or anything else, because they are the party
that wants to cut Medicaid, not by $100 billion over 10 years, not by
$200 billion or $300 billion. Look at their budgets year after year.
They want to cut it $500 billion or $700 billion. One year they even
proposed--here in the debates about the budgets, one year they even
proposed cutting the Medicaid Program by $1 trillion. That was the
official position of the Republican Party. So if you want to oppose
them on that, then they will try to take you down.
The Medicaid Program, by the way, pays for half--almost half--of the
births in America. Of the babies born in America, almost half of those
births are paid for by Medicaid--the Medicaid Program--the program they
want to cut by $500 billion, at least, and sometimes a lot more than
that.
So that is why they are against him, because they want to cut back on
healthcare.
Now, his leadership of this Agency could not come at a more important
time. Our Nation is facing the greatest public health crisis in more
than a century, since the horror of 1918. Now we are facing a similar
challenge.
We also have a jobs crisis. So the faster we put this pandemic behind
us, the better it is for creating a lot more jobs and lifting our
economy out of the ditch that it has been in the last year.
So we need a strong leader at HHS. We need someone who has the
experience, the integrity, to lead us in that Agency to help guide us
out of the crisis. I am confident--very confident--that Xavier Becerra
is that leader, and I urge my colleagues to vote in support of his
nomination.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Baldwin). The junior Senator from Florida
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, the first thing I would like
to do is correct what my colleague from Pennsylvania said with regard
to preexisting conditions.
I was here last year. I brought to the floor a bill that would say it
didn't matter what the Supreme Court did; we would make sure that we
could keep preexisting conditions if the Supreme Court declared that
the Affordable Care Act was not constitutional. The Democrats blocked
it.
I have been up here 2 years, and I have never seen once my Republican
colleagues want to reduce spending for Medicaid.
What I do think is unfair is, in my State of Florida, what money we
receive from the Federal Government is significantly less per person
than what a State like New York has. So I would like changes to the
Medicaid Program. I would like it to be a fair program in which States
like Florida will get treated just as well as States like New York.