HYDE-SMITH OPPOSES HHS NOMINEE XAVIER BECERRA
Slams Nominee’s Healthcare Experience as Limited to “Filing Lawsuits to Go Against Anything That is Pro-Life”
VIDEO: Senator Hyde-Smith Speaks Against Confirmation of HHS Nominee.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today expressed strong opposition to the confirmation of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Hyde-Smith, who serves on the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, joined colleagues at a news conference Thursday to discuss Becerra’s nomination.
“This nomination certainly, certainly concerns me, not only as a mother, not only as a woman, but as a legislator who has worked very hard through this COVID pandemic. To think we have a nominee from President Biden that has zero experience in any healthcare field,” Hyde-Smith said. “His experience is filing lawsuits to go against anything that is pro-life. And as the AG in California, he used that position to do that there. He will use it here.”
“It is still pretty incredible that his name was put up. I do not know him personally, but I certainly know his record. His record scares the American people. I know it scares the people in Mississippi. It’s such proof that this is definitely not the person that we need heading this agency,” she said.
Hyde-Smith is among the lawmakers who are critical of Becerra, who testified earlier this week at confirmation hearings conducted by the Committee on Finance and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Becerra, who has no particular experience or expertise in health, does have an extensive pro-abortion record as attorney general and former member of Congress. In fighting pro-life causes, he has championed positions challenged in the courts for conflicting with religious liberties.
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