Vote on Regan Nomination
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first, let me explain to the public and the Senators what we are doing here. In the bipartisan agreement we faced under a 50-50 Senate, the rules say that if there were a tie vote, the majority leader has the ability to discharge the nomination from committee and then there be a vote on the floor.
In this case, the nomination of Xavier Becerra to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, there was a tie vote in the Finance Committee. And what I will be doing in a moment is invoking that rule so that there can be 4 hours of debate on the motion, equally divided, and we will debate whether Becerra should be approved. Obviously, he only needs approval with 50 or 51 votes if the Vice President comes to break the tie.
I will say a brief word here. It is confounding to me that Mr. Becerra, Xavier Becerra, did not get some votes from the other side of the aisle. He is an eminently qualified member. He was an outstanding Member of Congress. He was a very good Attorney General, and he has led the charge to keep people's healthcare. When he was Attorney General, he was involved in the lawsuits of those who wanted to repeal the ACA. And if that is the reason our Republican colleagues are objecting-- because he wants to keep and preserve the Affordable Care Act, which is very popular with the American people and very needed--I am surprised. It is yesterday's news.
I know in 2010 a lot of people came here, ``Repeal ACA,'' but as the public got to know the ACA, they saw how good it was. And there is not much groundswell out there, except among some, the hard right, to repeal it. So I am surprised. And then we heard: Well, he is not a doctor. I would remind my colleagues that the last nominee for HHS they supported was a drug company executive. Are our Republican friends saying they would rather have a drug company executive who was not a doctor either than somebody who has been a very careful, smart attorney who has been fighting for people to get better healthcare? I am surprised.
So I hope that we may get a few of our colleagues to join us tomorrow and vote for Mr. Becerra. I don't think it will serve the country well or the Republicans well to be so adamantly opposed to him. But let me now proceed.
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