WAS SHINGTON – President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., California’s Democratic Attorney General Xavier Beserani, will be the first Latino to run the department, tapping a former congressman as his nominee for secretary of health and human services. Surging coronavirus fights the epidemic.
Mr. Besera had become Mr. Biden’s clear choice in the last few days, according to those familiar with the discussions of the transition, and was surprised. Mr. Besera has created more profiles on issues of criminal justice, immigration and tax policy, and he has long been considered a candidate for attorney general.
But as attorney general in California, he has been at the forefront of legal efforts on health care, with 20 states and the District of Columbia leading the campaign to protect the Affordable Care Act from demolition by the Portable Attorney General. She has also been a leading voice in the Democratic Party for women’s health.
If confirmed, Mr. Besera will immediately face the difficult task of leading the department at a critical moment during the epidemic of more than ૧ 281,000 deaths in the United States – and he takes a particularly devastating toll on people of color.
“ACA life has been transformative and now through this epidemic, we can all see the value of gaining greater access to quality healthcare at affordable prices,” Mr Besera said in June, when he applied briefly to the Supreme Court. Protection of health care laws. “Now is not the time to tear down our best tool to eliminate the very real and very deadly health inequalities in our communities.”
A spokesman for Mr Biden’s transition team declined to comment. According to people familiar with the rollout, the president-elect plans to formally announce Mr. Besera as his choice to head the health department earlier this week.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, who served as Surgeon General under President Barack Obama, will reassert this role for Mr. Biden. A telegenic and a president-elect trustee, Mr. Murthy will become one of Mr. Biden’s closest advisers on medical issues and develop the majority of the people on the epidemic.
Jeffrey de Giants, an entrepreneur and management consultant who served as head of Mr. Obama’s National Economic Council and corrected the entangled rollout of the health insurance policy’s online insurance market, will become a coronavirus Caesar at the White House, leading the coordination efforts. Fighting the coronavirus epidemic in a wide range of government agencies.
Some medical experts who were pushing the Biden team for the names of people with medical or public health skills to serve in health leadership positions, and by the news of Mr. Besera’s choice – and unfortunately, were caught.
In a letter to Mr Biden last week, five leading medical groups – the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Physicians – called on the president to appoint “qualified physicians to play a key role in moving forward”. . The health of our nation. ”
A person familiar with the effort said that the people involved were “stunned” by Mr Besera’s choice, and suggested that Mr Biden should be informed. Elevate the statue to a cabinet-level position.
Mr. Besera, 62, served 12 terms in Congress, in which he represented Los Angeles, before becoming attorney general of his home state in 2017. He is the first Latino to hold that position, and he was the first Latino to serve in Congress. Member of the Ways and Resources Committee. He also led the House Democratic Caucus, which gave him a powerful leadership position.
Mr Besera, a clear advocate of improved health care access, said in 2017 that he would “fully” support Medicare for all, a government-run health care proposal that Mr Biden explicitly rejected. A source familiar with the selection said Mr Besera would support the President-elect’s efforts to strengthen and maintain the Affordable Care Act and would not push Medicare for all while in office.
As California’s top law enforcement official, Mr. Besera has played a leading role in waging a nationwide legal battle for access to health care, focusing on breaking down barriers for women struggling to access medical services.
In April, Mr. Besera led a coalition of 22 state attorney generals to challenge Mississippi law, which barred doctors from providing abortion services for 15 weeks. In a statement at the time, Mr Besera called the ban “unfair, illegal and unjust.”
Presidential transition
“Laws like the Mississippi are a systematic attempt to undo women’s constitutional rights under Row v. Wade,” she said. “I will stand up for safe access to reproductive care and defend these rights for all women.”
Mr. Besera’s office has repeatedly bragged about lawsuits against the Trump administration, including suits challenging the president’s immigration and environmental policies. His activism in fighting Trump’s agenda in court earned him the admiration of leading progressives in the Democratic Party.
In September, Mr. Besera said the number of anti-Trump lawsuits had risen to 100 during the president’s first term.
But Mr. Besera also partnered with Republican counterparts at the time, urging the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies in August to increase access to remedesivir, a drug containing the treatment of Covid-19. . He also worked with Republicans to stop student vaping.
Born in Sacramento, Mr. Besera grows up in a working-class family; His mother emigrated from Mexico. According to an official, none of his parents had a “formal formal school”, and he was the first in his family to graduate from college. He attended Stanford as an undergraduate, where he earned a law degree in 1984.
Mr. Biden was impressed by Mr. Besera’s personal story, according to a person familiar with his thinking. In particular, the president-elect liked the fact that Mr. Besera served clients with mental health needs immediately after graduating from law school, the person said.
While in Congress he was a staunch supporter of the Latino community and deeply participated in efforts to abolish the nation’s immigration system. He also promoted the National Museum dedicated to the discovery of American Latino culture and history. The House voted this year to create such a museum.
Philmon Vela, a Democrat from Texas, praised Mr. Bisera’s choice, calling it “historic” and saying the California attorney general is the right person to lead the agency during the worst public health crisis in 100 years.
“Besera will lead an agency that will play a crucial role in overseeing the massive vaccination efforts and help manage the weak federal response to the evolving Covid-19 crisis,” Mr. Vela said. “It will also help shape the Biden administration’s efforts to create an affordable care law.”
But it was under his leadership that Hispanic Kakus of Congress lost its bipartisan civility. In the late 1990s, Mr. Besera traveled to Cuba and met with its leader, Fidel Castro, who angered Caucasus Republicans. He resigned, saying he had been “personally insulted” by the visit.
Mr. Bisen’s choice of Mr. Besera comes as pressure is mounting on the Latino community elected by the president and the Hispanic caucus of Congress to diversify his cabinet. New Mexico government Michelle Lugan Grisham was supposed to be in line for the job of health secretary, but she apparently ran out. Instead, news was leaked last week that Ms. Lujan Grisham had been offered, and denied the position of Home Secretary.
The leak prompted New Mexico Senator-elect Ben Ray Luzon to use a private meeting with top Biden advisers to rebuke Wide House of Staff Chief Ron Klein and other senior Binden officials for treating Mrs. Lugan Grisham. Democrats familiar with the debate.
Mr Luzon’s frustration expressed widespread concern that few Latinos had been selected for high-ranking positions in the Biden administration. Cuban-American and Secretary of Homeland Security nominee, Alejandro N. Mayorcas, the only Hispanic selected for the cabinet job, has been selected.
A person familiar with the selection process said Ms. Lujan Grisham has been Mr. Biden’s co-chair of the transition and will continue to work closely to help combat the epidemic even after taking office.
