Becerra served 12 terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming a key fixture of the Committee on Ways and Means. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Bloomberg)
President-elect Joe Biden has selected an experienced politician to help lead the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic and help shape the future of the Affordable Care Act. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra will become secretary of Health and Human Services, pending Senate approval. He helped pass the ACA as a congressman and led the defense of the act in the Supreme Court. He would be the first Hispanic to lead the department.
Recommended For You
"Attorney General Becerra has shown himself to be a thoughtful, strategic leader," said Stephanie Kennan, a former senior health policy advisor to Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and now a member of the federal public affairs group with McGuireWoods Consulting in Washington, D.C. "Those skills will be invaluable to be an effective leader of the Health and Human Services department and in carrying out the Biden administration's initiatives."
She expects health care to be a top priority for the incoming administration.
"The Biden administration will focus on controlling the pandemic as their first step at the same time they are working to improve the ACA to help cover individuals and families," Kennan said. Becerra emerged as a top contender late in the process after Biden's team considered a number of other candidates, including former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy — who will reprise that role in the Biden administration — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, Politico reported.
The Biden team has been planning to announce a slate of top health positions this week, which will include Jeff Zients as the coronavirus coordinator and Murthy as surgeon general. Murthy will take on an expanded portfolio, working closely with Zients on the coronavirus response. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor at Yale who is an expert on health care inequality, will have a senior role focused on health disparities. That announcement may be pushed back because of the delay in selecting Becerra.
Before his tenure as California attorney general, Becerra served 12 terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming a key fixture of the Committee on Ways and Means, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Social Security and chair of the House Democratic Caucus.
The son of working-class parents who was the first member of his family to graduate from college, Becerra started his career as a legal-aid attorney supporting clients contending with mental health issues before becoming a deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice and serving one term in the state assembly. Originally from Sacramento, Becerra received his Bachelor of Arts and law degrees from Stanford University.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Alan Goforth
Alan Goforth is a freelance writer in suburban Kansas City. In addition to freelancing for several publications, he has written a dozen books about sports and other topics.
