Posted on 02/22/2021 5:39:28 PM PST by lightman
Eleven Republican senators and 64 Republican House members are urging President Joe Biden to withdraw his nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to serve as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The members of Congress, led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), sent a letter (pdf) to Biden on Monday to express “grave concerns” over the nomination, arguing that Becerra was not qualified for the role given his record in public service revealing “extremism and contempt for those who take a different view.”
“Mr. Becerra’s lack of healthcare experience, enthusiasm for replacing private health insurance with government-run Medicare-for-all, and embrace of radical policies on immigration, abortion, and religious liberty, render him unfit for any position of public trust, and especially for HHS Secretary,” the senators wrote.
Becerra needs 51 votes in the Senate to be confirmed.
Becerra’s office did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.
The other senators who co-signed the letter were Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), John Kennedy (R-La.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) led the House effort.
Becerra, who has an economics and law background, has previously served 12 terms in Congress as a House of Representative member, where he took on leadership roles in several committees and served as Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. He also served in the California Legislature for one term.
The lawmakers argued in their letter that Becerra has “no meaningful experience in healthcare, public health, large-scale logistics, or any other areas critical to meeting our present challenges.”
“Mr. Becerra’s lack of qualifications is particularly alarming given the important role the HHS Secretary will play in efforts to develop and distribute vaccines, coordinate research efforts, and draft critical regulations to carry out recovery legislation,” they wrote.
The Republicans also took issue with Becerra’s support for radical leftist policies that they argue would “inflict great harm on millions of Americans.” They told Biden that the appointment would “contradict your calls for unity.”
“At a time when Americans can least afford it, Mr. Becerra enthusiastically supports eliminating the private health insurance market for 160 million Americans, only to replace it with a government takeover branded as Medicare-for-all,” they wrote. “The resulting reimbursement cuts would devastate rural health care providers working to stay solvent during the pandemic and would be a slap in the face to the doctors, nurses and other health care workers keeping our communities healthy and safe.”
A number of religious liberty groups and pro-life advocates have similarly expressed concern over Becerra’s nomination, arguing that his record as California attorney general demonstrates his hostility toward pro-life and religious causes.
When Becerra was serving as a U.S. House member, he voted against a bill that aims to protect minors from driving across state borders to get an abortion without parental consent. He had also voted against a law aimed at prohibiting a form of late termination of pregnancy called “partial-birth abortion.”
Becerra also voted against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act that protects unborn children by recognizing an embryo or fetus in utero as a legal victim.
“Xavier Becerra is particularly concerning for his extreme positions on abortion. While a majority of Americans support at least some restrictions on abortion, Xavier Becerra has a record of expanding abortion access, challenging laws that protect women, and consistently voting against bills that would protect women and unborn children,” Matt Sharp, senior counsel and state government relations national director at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), previously told The Epoch Times.
Becerra also indicated a lack of respect for the freedom of religious institutions in society during his 2017 confirmation hearing in California.
“[In] regards to religious protections, the protection for religion is for the individual, and so I think it’s important to distinguish between protections that you are affording to the individual to exercise his or her religion freely, versus protections you are giving to some institution or entity who’s essentially bootstrapping the First Amendment protections on behalf of somebody else,” Becerra responded to Assemblyman James Gallagher at the time when asked about religious liberties.
“Not only has Xavier Becerra sued the Little Sisters of the Poor to coerce them to abandon their religious commitments that conflicted with Obama Administration policies concerning contraception and abortion, but he has also been a vocal and supportive ally of Planned Parenthood,” professor Edward A. Morse, who is a member of the board of directors of the Thomas More Society, previously told The Epoch Times.
“He has been instrumental in focusing the state’s prosecutorial powers on members of the pro-life cause, including David Daleiden, who have shined light on the business practices of Planned Parenthood and others in the abortion industry.”
The White House did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday that Biden backed Becerra for his “decades of healthcare policy experience.”
She pointed in particular to his role in leading the defense of the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court in November last year.
Ooh now Republicans are getting tough. /s
I’m sure the Democrats are quaking in their boots.
I’m sure our next HHS Secretary isn’t worried one bit, and why should he? The hapless Repukes putting up token opposition to make GOP voters think they’re trying to do something! Pathetic!
The Republican Party = The U.N. of U.S. politics.
“Ooh now Republicans are getting tough. /s”
Unlike the Democrats, who speak and act in unison, only some Republicans are speaking out. Republicans have no concept of standing united. They seem to enjoy the failure that goes with being divided against a united opposition.
Tom Cotton seems to spend all his time writing letters. Maybe he should consider resuming his career as an author?
It is easier to cast stones than to build foundations.
Yes. issuing a “letter” will make a great difference. I’m sure whoever receives it in Bidens name will pay close attention.
This nominee ranks up with the unqualified jerks.
Ooh now Republicans are getting tough. /s
Only 75 of them.
Xavier Becerra, played a key role in events that led to the pardon of a convicted drug trafficker after the defendant's father contributed thousands of dollars toward Becerra's campaigns.
While Carlos Vignali was in prison his father, California businessman Horacio Vignali, requested favors from several political figures including then-Congressman Becerra, seeking assistance in lobbying for his son's release. Carlos Vignali received a commutation from President Bill Clinton on the last day of the administration in January 2001.
"Congressman Becerra conceded that the Vignalis were not members of his constituency but that Horacio had been a friend and contributor of his for five years," a 2002 House report said, specifying that Horacio Vignali had contributed at least $11,000 to his political action committee between 1998 and 2001, $2,475 to his congressional campaigns, and $3,500 toward his subsequent failed bid for Los Angeles mayor. As the Los Angeles Times reported in 2001, Becerra acknowledged that Horacio Vignali and then-Rep. Esteban Torres, D-Calif., both contacted him about helping Carlos. This led to Becerra contacting Alejandro Mayorkas, who was a U.S. attorney at the time and is now Biden's pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
Becerra, currently the California attorney general, asked Mayorkas whether a commutation of Vignali’s sentence was possible, which led to Mayorkas taking a look at the case and agreeing that the sentence was unfair. Mayorkas was also in contact with Vignali and, at his urging, placed calls to Washington -- including to the White House -- about the case, despite admittedly not being very familiar with the facts of the case.
The House report said that Mayorkas' involvement was "inappropriate," and "particularly troubling" given that the prosecutors who convicted Vignali opposed commutation. (Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Becerra has yet to answer for his outrageous conduct as a Congressman and House Democratic Caucus Chair.
As California’s top law enforcer, Cong Becerra knew, or should have known, US House policies are codified by law.
<><> House members are not allowed to accept services from people not on their payroll
<><> House employees are not permitted to log onto servers of members for whom they do not work.
<><> No scenario exists where the Awan clan’s access was even remotely appropriate.
Many House IT set-ups were “thin clients” (computers optimized for establishing remote connections w/ servers based elsewhere).
In 2016, the Pakistani Awan clan (suspected of being spies) worked as numerous House Democrats’ ITs
and used Becerra’s Democratic Caucus computers in anomalous ways:
<><> Authorities say Becerra’s entire Democratic Caucus server physically disappeared while being monitored by L/E.
<><> The Awans were using the House Democratic Caucus as their central service warehouse.
<><> The Awan clan collectively logged onto Becerra’s Caucus system 5,735 times, some 27 times per day
<><> Falsely logging onto Becerra’s laptop as system administrators.
<><> Changing their identities.
<><> Logging onto Cong Becerra’s server using 17 different user account credentials
<><> Some credentials the Paki’s used belonged to House Democrats.
<><> The Pakis did no IT work for 9 of the 17 offices to which these user accounts belonged.
<><> Investigations found “possible storage of sensitive House information” outside the House.
<><> Dropbox was installed on two Democratic Caucus computers used by the suspects.
<><> Two user accounts had thousands of files in their Dropbox folder on each computer.
<><> Using Dropbox is against House rules because it uploads files offsite.
<><> The Wash/Po reported “Based on the file names, some of the information is likely sensitive.”
<><> House computer set-ups were found to be portals to an outside computer.
<><> Awans were using terminal servers from a computer in a different location.
<><> Virtual Private Networks can make a server’s hard drive appear to be local to a computer.
<><> Remote sessions remained active for months at a time.
<><> Data was always out of [the members’] possession
<><> Other Democrat offices were accessed in total less than 60 times.
<><> The pattern of login activity suggests steps were taken to conceal the Pakis’ suspect activity.
<><> The aggregation of multiple members’ data would mean all that data was taken when the Paki’s absconded.
A U.S. voter rights group informed the Department of Justice on Dec. 3 of a link between the Nevada election emails system and a Pakistani company with ties to military and intelligence. True the Vote requested the Nevada voter file from the secretary of state after the Nov. 3 election. The state responded with a voter file in an email, but the message was copied to Waqas Butt, CEO of Pakistani-based Kavtech Solutions Ltd. (Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ..
============================
NEED TO KNOW ASAP
<><> Did the Nevada Secretary of State contract with the Pakistani company?
<><> What are the connections there?
<><> Who were the contacts?
<><> Why was this company chosen?
<><> Are Americans jeopardized for a foreign company to have Nevada voter information?
<><> The Paki company seems to have voter info: names, DOB, address, driver’s licenses, possibly S/S numbers, and signatures.
<><> Was this information shared with others?
<><> How much of the info harvested grew into a mail in absentee vote??
<><> Given Becerra's closeness w/ the Paki House IT's, what does he know about this and when did he know it?
They are always tough when they have no chance of getting a conservative agenda passed.
That is because a good portion of the GOP is RINOs.
How izzit pubbies do not know the goals of the xiden kleptocracy?
Mitch, Pelosi's b*tch, needs to shut up and fetch Speaker Winebox and Leader Sheckie some more coffee.
Lack of experience/training/certifications/education is considered a good thing to the communists.
REPRESENTS MY DISTRICT IN LA. I REAL MENACE!
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