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.
The issue for the Biden administration, however, is that this Cabinet member has exacerbated some problematic news cycles rather than helped circumvent them.
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Six months into Biden’s presidency, Becerra has not taken questions from reporters in the White House’s James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, according to a Washington Examiner analysis. During that time, a handful of his Cabinet secretary counterparts have appeared alongside press secretary Jen Psaki twice. They include Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
Becerra has been largely omitted from the administration’s Sunday show roster as well. Biden’s COVID-19 task force, headed by management consultant-turned-government official Jeff Zients, has been frequently dispatched in his stead.
White House aides told the Washington Examiner Becerra is a valued member of the administration. In response to the pandemic, he was featured in an MSNBC town hall and this week flew to Las Vegas to promote Biden’s surge team approach. Nevada is one of the country’s worst five states for rising COVID-19 cases as the delta variant spreads among unvaccinated people.
An HHS spokeswoman underscored the weekly nature of Becerra’s trips to tout Biden’s trillion-dollar health and social welfare agenda. That work is funded, in part, by the president’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus spending package, with coming investments through the nontraditional infrastructure-plus bill being drafted by Congress.
“He’s leading the effort to ensure American Rescue Plan dollars reach community health clinics, and he’s spotlighting the additional relief the American Families Plan can bring to parents and kids as he visits communities nationwide,” she said of Becerra.
Yet Becerra’s understated presence in the media can be contrasted against that of his predecessor and his department’s priority portfolio.
Former President Donald Trump-era HHS Secretary Alex Azar, a lawyer and lobbyist, spearheaded Trump’s COVID-19 task force before he was unceremoniously dumped in favor of then-Vice President Mike Pence. And on several occasions when Becerra has faced reporters, he has provided Republicans with political ammunition to attack him and Biden.
Becerra insisted this month, for instance, that it is “absolutely the government’s business” to know if people are vaccinated against COVID-19. Biden had days earlier announced his “door to door” strategy to encourage people to receive their shots.
“It is taxpayers’ business if we have to continue to spend money to try to keep people from contracting COVID and helping reopen the economy. And so, it is our business to try to make sure Americans can prosper, Americans can freely associate,” Becerra told CNN. “And knocking on a door has never been against the law. You don’t have to answer, but we hope you do. Because if you haven’t been vaccinated, we can help dispel some of the rumors you heard and hopefully get you vaccinated.”
Becerra later tweeted that his comments had been taken “wildly” out of context. His explanation, though, did not prevent the publication of editorials claiming he had temporarily derailed Biden’s vaccination campaign.
“To be clear: government has no database tracking who is vaccinated. We’re encouraging people to step up to protect themselves, others by getting vaccinated. It’s the best way to save lives and end this pandemic,” he wrote.
Some comments I made today are being taken wildly out of context. To be clear: government has no database tracking who is vaccinated. We’re encouraging people to step up to protect themselves, others by getting vaccinated. It’s the best way to save lives and end this pandemic.
— Secretary Xavier Becerra (@SecBecerra) July 8, 2021
HHS is responsible, too, for housing migrant children stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. And Becerra has been criticized by Democrats for being prepared to expand capacity at facilities, such as Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.
Becerra toured his first shelters in May, when more than 180,000 migrants were apprehended at the border. Yet by then, the number of unaccompanied minors had decreased from a record high of almost 19,000 in March.
“I was not only gratified to see that it’s working, but I was actually uplifted by what I saw,” he said after seeing beds set up at the Long Beach, California, convention center.
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Becerra’s appointment has been controversial from the start. His 50-49 Senate confirmation was the White House’s narrowest Cabinet-level vote. Republicans opposed Becerra’s nomination over what they saw as his strident abortion rights advocacy and defense of the Affordable Care Act as California’s top law enforcement officer.
