Biden nominee for head of HHS gets Senate backing, just

US Senators on Thursday approved California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary on a razor-thin vote that broke almost entirely along party lines and followed searing debate over the lawyer's qualifications and support for abortion rights.

US President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the powerful HHS had a tough ride through the Senate in the first of two hearings, with Republicans portraying Mr Becerra as unfit.

The department includes agencies at the core of the federal response to the pandemic that has infected more than 29.6 million people in the United States and killed more than 535,000, commented the Washington Post. They include the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the vaccine-approving Food and Drug Administration, which is currently headed by Dr Janet Woodcock as Acting Commissioner, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the country’s vast public insurance programs.