CNA Staff, Jan 15, 2021 / 19:01 pm
Conservative scholars argued this week that Xavier Becerra, president-elect Joe Biden's pick for HHS secretary, has a history of "hostility to nonprofit institutions and the donors who support them," particularly religious nonprofits.
In a Jan. 13 opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, James Piereson and Naomi Schaefer Riley wrote that Becerra, currently serving as California's attorney general, has a history of supporting initiatives aiming to "use the tax code to redirect charitable giving toward causes [he] finds worthwhile."
Notably, they say, Becerra has taken steps to attempt to force organizations such as pro-life pregnancy centers and religious foster-care agencies to violate their principles.
"Religious organizations run many of America's hospitals, nursing homes, senior centers, foster and adoption agencies, after-school programs and hospices. Mr. Becerra seems to want the power to cast their principles aside in favor of his own ideological mission," the authors assert.