Nomination of Xavier Becerra

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to oppose the nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services of Xavier Becerra.

As I stand here today, America is still fighting the worst pandemic in a century. More than half a million Americans, as we have just heard, have died of this coronavirus. Life expectancy in our country has actually dropped by a full year. Now, as a doctor, I will tell you that is a significant drop of life expectancy.

In this time of crisis, our Secretary of Health and Human Services may be the single most important member in the President's Cabinet. There are many well-qualified Democrats, in my opinion, who could serve in this position. For example, I voted to confirm President Obama's last Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sylvia Burwell. She was confirmed by a large bipartisan majority.

That is not the kind of nominee that we have this time. In the middle of a crisis, President Biden has chosen someone who is, in my opinion, both unqualified and unfit for this specific job.

First, Attorney General Becerra is unqualified. Let me talk about that. As a doctor, I am deeply concerned that President Biden has nominated someone with no medical or public health experience. He is not a doctor, not a scientist, not a public health official. He is a trial lawyer and a career politician. A global pandemic is no time for on-the-job healthcare training. The Secretary must be ready on day one.

Attorney General Becerra is not only unqualified, I say he is radically liberal in his positions. Attorney General Becerra is the most leftwing nominee for this job, in my opinion, in history. He is an aggressive culture warrior from the radical left. He supports Medicare for All, which would ban private health insurance, and 180 million people who get their health insurance through their jobs would lose it. If his positions go forward and he has his way, American workers would lose that opportunity and that benefit of their jobs.

He has made a name for himself in the Democratic Party for his extreme positions on abortion. During his 24 years in Congress, Attorney General Becerra voted against every restriction on abortion. During his confirmation hearing, Senator Daines even asked him to name a single restriction he would support. He couldn't name a single one. This record has earned him a ``100 percent'' rating from Planned Parenthood.

As a Congressman, Mr. Becerra even voted against the ban on partial- birth abortion. The Supreme Court, rightly, upheld banning partial- birth abortions in the United States.

This wasn't the only time the attorney general's positions were at odds with that of the current Supreme Court as he was attorney general in California.

During his confirmation hearing, Mr. Becerra claimed he never sued any nuns. That is his quote: ``never sued any nuns.'' He also said he only sued because of California law. Well, both of these statements stretch the truth, to put it mildly.

In 2017, the Trump administration gave a group of nuns an exception from being required to pay for birth control. The nuns say that violates their religious beliefs, having to pay for birth control. Attorney General Becerra then sued the Trump administration to stop them from giving this exemption. Attorney General of California Becerra, the nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, lost at the Supreme Court by a vote of 7 to 2.

One of the jobs of the Secretary of Health and Human Services is to protect the conscience rights of doctors and nurses. Mr. Becerra's record shows he can't be trusted to do that.

There is a well-known case involving Crisis Pregnancy Centers. Now, these are groups that help women facing an unplanned pregnancy. California said they had to advertise where these women could go to get abortions. Attorney General Becerra brought the full power of the State of California against the pro-life groups. Once again, the Supreme Court of the United States stepped in to stop him.

Mr. Becerra also used the power of his office to criminally prosecute pro-life journalists. A pro-life activist went undercover to investigate Planned Parenthood for trafficking in aborted body parts. His revelations caused outrage across the country. Attorney General Becerra charged him, the undercover reporter, with 15 felony counts.

This was too much even for Attorney General Becerra's liberal hometown newspaper. The Los Angeles Times said:

It's disturbingly aggressive for Becerra to apply this criminal statute to people who were trying to influence a contested issue of public policy, regardless of how sound or popular that policy may be.

So Attorney General Becerra is a radical liberal on a whole host of issues. As attorney general of California, he sued the Trump administration over 120 different times. That is quite a few. This includes filing nine lawsuits on the very last day of President Trump's administration--the very last day, nine more lawsuits added to the pile.

He sued to try to stop President Trump from building the wall on the southern border. He sued the Trump administration to try to stop fracking on Federal lands in California. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The list goes on and on. When you look at the record, it is clear: Xavier Becerra is out of touch with the views of the American people.

President Biden has chosen an extremely liberal Cabinet. He was forced to withdraw his nominee for Budget Director. His Vice President has been the least bipartisan, in terms of a Senator of record, of any Senator in 2019. And now Attorney General Becerra seems to be the most liberal of them all.

Frankly, his selection, I think, shocked a lot of people across the country. During this pandemic, we need a leader for the Department of Health and Human Services who brings us together as a nation. Instead, the President has chosen a nominee with no public health experience and an extremely partisan record, so I urge my colleagues to reject this unqualified, incredibly liberal nominee.

Thank you.

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