Washington:
Joe Biden plans to nominate California lawyer common Xavier Becerra for secretary of overall health and human services, which would add yet another Latino member to the president-elect’s increasingly diverse cabinet, US media reported Sunday.
During Becerra’s 12 terms in the US Congress representing Los Angeles, he was an outspoken advocate of Latino rights and a vigorous defender of former president Barack Obama’s signature overall health care plan — a policy that has been considerably attacked by President Donald Trump and Republicans.
NBC, The New York Times and various other news organizations reported on the program to nominate Becerra, citing anonymous sources close to the president-elect.
Becerra, 62, was elected as California lawyer common in 2016, succeeding Vice President-elect Kamala Harris just after she was elected to the US Senate. Becerra was the initial Latino to hold that workplace.
While in workplace, he also defended the immigrant rights plan DACA in front of the Supreme Court.
According to the Times, Becerra’s nomination comes just after complaints from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about a lack of Latinos in the incoming cabinet.
Biden has announced Cuban-born Alejandro Mayorkas as his choose to head the Department of Homeland Security.
If confirmed, Becerra would be tasked with top the overall health division amid the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 282,000 in the US.
Biden has also picked Rochelle Walensky to head the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the government’s overall health protection agency, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported.
Walensky is chief of the infectious ailments division at Massachusetts General Hospital and is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
She will replace Robert Redfield as director of the CDC, which has come below stress from the Trump administration and its allies more than its coronavirus guidance.
For the third day in a row, the United States on Saturday notched a record quantity of coronavirus situations in 24 hours, reaching almost 230,000 new infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Biden has stressed that he would strive for diversity whilst deciding on employees for when he requires workplace in January.
In addition to Becerra, other firsts include things like the initial female Treasury secretary, the initial female head of intelligence and the initial Latino chief of homeland safety.
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