The Senate on Thursday voted to confirm Xavier Becerra as President Biden’s Health and Human Services secretary, delivering the nascent administration another Cabinet member despite nearly unanimous opposition from Republican lawmakers. Lawmakers approved Becerra on a 50-49 vote, with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the only Republican to support his nomination. Conservative groups have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ad buys in Arizona and West Virginia, trying to pressure moderate Democrats to not support Becerra. Becerra served as a member of Congress for close to 24 years before he was appointed as California attorney general by then-California Gov. Jerry Brown in 2017 to fill a vacancy left by Kamala Harris when she was elected to the Senate.

Source: Fox News March 18, 2021 16:41 UTC