Biden picks Calif. AG to be first Latino health secretary

President-elect Joe Biden has picked California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his health secretary, putting a defender of Affordable Care Act in a leing role to oversee his ministration's coronavirus response.

If confirmed by Senate, Becerra, 62, will be first Lati to he Department of Health and Human Services, a $1-trillion-plus ncy with 80,000 employees and a portfolio that includes drugs and vaccines, leing-edge medical research and health insurance programs covering more than 130 million Americans.

As California's attorney general, Becerra has led coalition of Democratic states defending “Obamacare” from Trump ministration's latest effort to overturn it, a legal case awaiting a Supreme Court decision next year.

A former senior House Democrat, Becerra played a role in steering Obama health law through Congress in 2009 and 2010. At time he would tell reporters that one of primary motivations for him was having tens of thousands of uninsured people in his Sourn California district.