The vote took place at an executive session of the finance committee Wednesday morning. Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. announced that the tie vote will be reported to the secretary of the Senate. He noted that it is up to the Senate majority or minority leader to bring a motion to discharge the nomination for a vote by the full Senate.
"If there is an effort to paint the attorney general as some kind of inexperienced radical it's just not backed up by what the committee saw last week," Wyden said.Wyden noted that it is normal for senators to have differences of opinion with nominees and that Becerra's nomination was no different. Xavier Becerra, secretary of Health and Human Services nominee for President Biden, testifies during a Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. Photographer: Greg Nash/The Hill/Bloomberg via Getty Images
"But disagreement on some issues alone is not a good enough reason to oppose a nominee as knowledgeable and qualified as Attorney General Becerra," he said.Wyden's remarks about Becerra's qualifications came after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called Becerra's nomination"a puzzling selection for this critical post," and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.
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