WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday confirmed California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as President Joe Biden’s health secretary, with U.S. Sen. Susan Collins casting the only Republican vote for the first Latino to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Becerra will fill a key position in the administration’s coronavirus response and its ambitious push to lower drug costs, expand insurance coverage, and eliminate racial disparities in medical care. The $1.4 trillion agency encompasses health insurance programs, drug safety and approvals, advanced medical research, substance abuse treatment, and the welfare of children, including hundreds of Central American migrants arriving daily at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Becerra has been California’s attorney general since 2017. He sued the Trump administration 124 times on a range of policy issues, earning the ire of conservatives. Before that he represented a Los Angeles-area district in the U.S. House for 24 years. A lawyer, not a doctor, his main experience with the health care system came through helping to pass the Obama-era Affordable Care Act and defending it when Donald Trump was president.
“I understand the enormous challenges before us and our solemn responsibility to be faithful stewards of an agency that touches almost every aspect of our lives,” Becerra said recently at his confirmation hearing.
Becerra was confirmed in a 50-49 vote on Thursday, with all Democrats except one absent member voting for him and Collins casting the lone Republican vote for him. She said last week that the two have discussed “shared goals,” including lower prescription drug prices and supporting domestic drug manufacturing. She said he committed to improving rural health care access
“Although there are issues where I strongly disagree with Mr. Becerra, I believe he merits confirmation as HHS secretary,” Collins said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the department to achieve bipartisan results on behalf of the American people.”
Leading Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, have dismissed Becerra as unfit. But the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association supported him. Two influential lobbying groups, representing the drug industry and health insurers, said after the vote that they look forward to a collaborative working relationship.
Becerra was reliably liberal in nearly a quarter-century in the House, though he was not seen as a left-wing firebrand. His issues were education, immigration and equal treatment for minorities. His profile was of a low-key insider who could work with Republicans.
The Biden administration’s COVID-19 response is already in high gear. The president Biden has signed his $1.9 trillion relief bill into law and agencies are making announcements almost daily. But having a health secretary in the mix will make a big difference, said Kathleen Sebelius, who led HHS during much of President Barack Obama’s administration.
“Many of the assets that will be important to this effort are in HHS, and he’ll have the key coordinating role within the department,” Sebelius said.
Core components of HHS are the boots on the ground of the coronavirus response. The Food and Drug Administration oversees vaccines and treatments. Much of the underlying scientific and medical research comes from the National Institutes of Health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention takes the lead containing the spread of the virus and developing guidance to safely reopen schools and offices. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provides insurance coverage for more than 1 in 3 Americans, including vulnerable seniors, as well as many children and low-income people.
Becerra also will also be the point man on Biden’s health care agenda, which includes insurance for all Americans, deputizing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and tackling persistent racial and ethnic disparities in the health care system. Prescription drugs and health insurance will lead to major legislative battles.
Story by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar. BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.