Is Xavier Becerra ‘radical’? Republicans criticize Biden nominee’s record
Xavier Becerra’s limited experience as a manager or a health care expert — as well as his views on abortion — are stoking concern among Republican senators whose votes will be crucial to his confirmation as Health and Human Services secretary.
Becerra, the California attorney general, is President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to head the massive agency. If confirmed, he would become the administration’s chief spokesman for his policies on health care reform, response to the COVID-19 pandemic and other related issues.
That bothers some GOP senators.
“I think he’s going to have a tough time,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.
“He’s pretty radical,” added Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
The Senate traditionally gives new presidents a chance to form and work with their own teams unless the nominee becomes politically toxic. But HHS is an unusually important job to both Democrats and Republicans, who view health care policy as an important political issue.
So far, Republicans will control 50 Senate seats and Democrats will have 48, while Georgia’s two seats go to a runoff election. Should Democrats win both Senate seats up in Georgia Jan. 5, Becerra would have an easier path because his party would run the Senate and the hearings and Vice President Kamala Harris would break a 50-50 tie.
At the moment, Republicans have questions about Becerra, but most say they’re keeping an open mind.
“I was surprised that it wasn’t an individual who had a healthcare background but... I truly don’t know him,” said Susan Collins, R-Maine, a centrist Senate Republican.
Some Republicans don’t want to discuss a Biden administration until he’s clearly the winner in their eyes.
“I’m not going to comment on any Biden nominees until December 14th and then I’ll tell you,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, D-S.C. The electoral college meets on that date.
Becerra was a House member from 1993 to 2017 before leaving to become attorney general in 2017. While his reputation was a methodical partisan, he had a collegial reputation and some Senate Republicans who served with him in the House remembered him as a respected colleague.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., served with Becerra on the House Appropriations Committee.
“He’s certainly got the intellectual capacity, and he’s well spoken,” Wicker said, adding the lack of health care experience is “not a problem for me.”
A Lack of Experience
“It does seem as if there’s some advantage of somebody having some background in health care. If they’re going to lead the largest health care agency,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a physician.
Cassidy also knew Becerra when they were House members. Becerra, he said, “always appeared very capable, but that’s not to say he knows anything about health care.”
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., also a physician, said it was “important that somebody who’s going to oversee that sort of level of involvement of our nation in healthcare have some knowledge of the way it works.”
Becerra’s views trouble many GOP senators. He’s supported creating a government-run health care program through a Medicare for All plan — though Biden has not — and has led states’ legal efforts to block the Trump administration’s attempts to dilute and repeal Obamacare.
Although Biden hasn’t supported a single-payer health care system, Kennedy said he’s “not sure what Mr. Biden will be for after he gets pressure from the left.”
“Besides that, a secretary of the department can affect policy through a thousand small cuts the White House never knows about,” Kennedy said.
For the past 35 years, HHS secretaries have had substantial experience in management or the health care field. Current Secretary Alex Azar was a pharmaceutical company executive for 10 years before taking his current job.
Becerra, 62, currently manages the state’s Department of Justice. In Washington, he was chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, which plots strategy for the party in the House, and a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which writes health care legislation.
“So maybe they’re just planning to do all their work in the White House,” Cassidy said. “But, you know, it’s kind of like having a pacifist (or) somebody without experience in defense being the Secretary of Defense.”
Abortion
Most Republican senators oppose abortion, and interest groups are pushing hard against Becerra.
NARAL Pro-Choice America Monday called Becerra “a champion for protecting access to healthcare, including access to abortion care.”
Becerra’s record disturbs Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
“Xavier Becerra spent his career attacking pro-life Americans and tried to force crisis pregnancy centers to advertise abortions. He’s been a disaster in California and he is unqualified to lead HHS,” Cotton tweeted.
“I’ll be voting no, and Becerra should be rejected by the Senate,” he said.
Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., said he would meet with Becerra and planned to ask how “his support for abortions and Medicare for All makes him qualified to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.”
Most senators would not go as far as to say they’re a no vote. But they also predicted the confirmation hearings won’t be easy.
“I’m not going to automatically say no to anybody,” said Kennedy, “but I think he’s going to have a heavy lift.”
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