Despite pandemic, health secretary Xavier Becerra keeps low profile

By Naomi Lim

Published July 26, 2021 11:00am ET

He was a high-profile, contentious nominee, but Xavier Becerra’s relatively low profile as Health and Human Services secretary is conspicuous amid a global pandemic. Becerra, a 24-year congressman before then-California Gov. Jerry Brown tapped him to become the state’s attorney general in 2017, also did not play a major public-facing role at the height of […]

He was a high-profile, contentious nominee, but Xavier Becerra’s relatively low profile as Health and Human Services secretary is conspicuous amid a global pandemic.

Becerra, a 24-year congressman before then-California Gov. Jerry Brown tapped him to become the state’s attorney general in 2017, also did not play a major public-facing role at the height of President Joe Biden’s migrant child crisis.