People in the news

Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.)

Vice chair of the Democratic Caucus (since January 2009)

(Chip Somodevilla/
Getty Images)

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman (since January 2009); California State Assembly (1990 to 1992); California Deputy Attorney General (1987 to 1990)
Birthday: Jan. 26, 1958
Hometown: Born in Sacramento, Calif. and lives in Eagle Rock, Calif.
Alma Mater: Stanford University, B.A., 1980; J.D., 1984
Spouse: Carolina Reyes
Religion: Catholic

Committees: House Ways and Means ; Budget
DC Office: 1226 Longworth House Office Building, 202-225-6235
District Office: Los Angeles, 213-483-1425
Email
Web site

Path to Power

Becerra grew up with three sisters in a one-room house in California. His mother was from Guadalajara, Mexico, and his father grew up in Tijuana after being born in Sacramento. His father was a blue-collar laborer, spending most of his career shining shoes, canning tomatoes and working construction. Becerra often helped his father on his construction gigs and says he still wears his father's wedding ring to remind him of his working-class roots.

Becerra taught himself to be a good enough golfer to make the high-school golf team, and in high school, he learned how to play poker well enough that he was offered a job as a Las Vegas casino dealer.

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In high-school chemistry, a friend of his, upset about a bad grade on an exam, handed Becerra his application to Stanford University. Though he didn't know where the school was, Becerra applied and was accepted, becoming the first person in his family to graduate from college.

Becerra wasn't a college political activist, but he said he thought about advocacy during that time; he took note of, for instance, the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, which upheld affirmative action but struck down the use of racial quotas. After a year-long fellowship in the office of state Sen. Art Torres (D), Becerra went to Stanford Law School.

Becerra's first job after law school was working with mentally-ill clients in Massachusetts, where his wife was attending Harvard Medical School. In 1986, he moved back to California and ran Torres' Los Angeles' district office.

Political Debut

It wasn't long before people started asking the young, charismatic lawyer when he was going to run for office. In 1990, Becerra won a seat in the California legislature. Just two years later, Edward Roybal (D), California's first Latino congressman, retired and backed Becerra for his seat.

Becerra won the House primary with 32 percent of the vote, and then easily took the heavily Democratic seat with 58 percent. The California Democrat has easily been reelected every year since then, often with more than 80 percent of the vote.

Once in Washington, D.C., Becerra joined the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and in 1997 ran for caucus chair. He won easily, but stirred up some controversy when he visited Cuba and met with leader Fidel Castro shortly before the election. That visit prompted Cuban-American Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the only two Republicans in the caucus, to quit after Becerra became chair. That same year, Becerra was given a seat on the influential House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees tax policy. He had been clearly tapped as a rising star in the Democratic Party.

Becerra took a step back in 2001, when he decided to run for mayor of Los Angeles. But he struggled to make a name for himself outside of his House district and finished a disappointing fifth in the Democratic mayoral primary. Becerra returned to Congress and continued to serve on Ways and Means.

House Leadership

In 2006, when Democrats recaptured a House majority, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tapped Becerra to be assistant to the speaker, making him the highest-ranking Latino in the House Democratic leadership and allowing him to shape the party's politics and agenda.

After the 2008 election, when Democratic Caucus Chair Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) left the House to be President Obama's chief of staff, Caucus Vice Chair John B. Larson (D-Conn.) became the caucus' top man.

Subsequently, Becerra ran for Larson's vice chair slot against the more conservative Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), winning easily. Becerra's triumph was another victory for Speaker Pelosi, who now had liberal allies in nearly all of the House Democratic leadership posts. Longtime rival Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) was the lone exception.

But shortly after the 2008 elections - and after some Hispanic activists criticized the fact that there weren't more Hispanics in top slots - Becerra's name surfaced as a possible USTR pick. But he seems destined for the Caucus vice chair slot. Obama picked Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk for the USTR position.

The Issues

Becerra is a member of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party and a part of the Progressive Caucus. He consistently votes with House Democrats, sticking with his party 98.4 percent of the time during the 110th Congress.

Becerra's seat on the House Ways and Means Committee, where he was the only Hispanic member, puts him at the forefront of the debate on taxes, health care and welfare programs.

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In 2008, he introduced a taxpayer bill of rights with the goal of simplifying the tax code, and he strongly opposed President George W. Bush's plan to allow people to put a portion of their Social Security money into private accounts, saying that three-fourths of Hispanics rely on it for half of their income. "There is no crisis," he said. "Social Security is being raided. We don't need to privatize; we need to strengthen."

Trade

Becerra is generally a supporter of free trade, but he has wavered a bit in recent years. He supported the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993, but voted against the Central American Free Trade Agreement in 2005, citing a lack of labor and environmental standards. "I'm not interested in a race to the bottom," Becerra said. "If I were to write a trade deal, I'd try to incentivize my trading partner to reach me, not reach a deal that says I need to go down to where you are."

He also voted against an agreement with Oman, while supporting pacts with Chile, Singapore and Peru. "Trade has to be sold as something that's good for us," Becerra said after the Peru Free Trade Agreement passed thanks in part to the increased labor and environmental standards that Becerra wanted.

Immigration

As a former member of the House Judiciary Committee and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus early in his career, immigration issues were a top priority for Becerra.

In 1993, just after he arrived in the House, the Latino lawmaker got into a shouting match with then-chair of House Ways and Means Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) because Rostenkowski wanted to cut welfare benefits for legal immigrants.

He was opposed to California's Prop 187 in 1994, which was designed to deny services such as public education and non-emergency health care to illegal immigrants living in the United States. The proposition, which had passed, was later overturned by a federal court, but Becerra said its passage had energized Latino voters.

Becerra criticized President Bill Clinton's signing of the welfare bill in 1996 because it cut not only benefits for immigrants, but also downsized welfare-to-work programs that helped the poor.

Smithsonian Board of Regents Member

In March 2005, Becerra was appointed to fill a seat on the Smithsonian Institution's Board of Regents, which is a 17-member board that includes the vice president, a U.S. Supreme Court justice, congressmen and other appointed officials. The board acts like a board of trustees, approving budgets and planning documents, proposing new programs and detailing new construction projects.

In 2007, he finally won support for a 2003 bill to establish a commission that will look into the feasibility and plan a museum dedicated to the American Latino. If approved, the museum would be on the National Mall and would be publicly and privately financed.

There is "a great gap in the level and quality of awareness that other Americans possess about the rich and diverse character of Latino culture and history," Becerra said.

The Economy

Becerra, who is a reliable Democratic vote on most issues, broke with his party leadership on the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street in the fall of 2008.

His district includes some of Los Angeles' poorest neighborhoods, and he said he couldn't justify giving taxpayer money to corporate chieftains while his district suffered. "The last thing I need to do is go back home and tell people I voted for $700 billion, some of which will touch the same people that caused the problem, and I can't guarantee taxpayers will recoup those costs," he said.

The Network

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) considers Becerra a close ally. In 2006, she appointed the young, liberal lawmaker as assistant to the Speaker and she backed him as a potential U.S. Trade Representative for President Barack Obama .

Additional Resources

Jacqueline Trescott, "Bill takes first steps toward Latino museum," The Washington Post, Oct. 17, 2003
Juliet Eilperin, "How trade breakthrough almost broke down in Congress," The Washington Post, Nov. 22, 2007
Sally Streff Buzbee, "California passes highly criticized measure to rein in illegals," The Associated Press, Nov. 9, 1994
The Almanac of American Politics, 2008 edition
Washington Post Votes Database
James Bornemeier, "Rising star builds a more visible platform," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 24, 1996
"Issue of Cuba divides Congressional Hispanic Caucus," St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri), Feb. 9, 1997
Press release on Xavier Becerra's official web site, "A Permanent place for Latino culture in the Nation's Capital,"
Carolyn Carlson, "Social Security changes denounced," Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico), June 2, 2005
Randal C. Archibold, "Black and Hispanic Caucuses resisted Pelosi on bailout," Oct. 1, 2008;
Patrick O'Connor, "House Dems lose 'den mother' Rahm," Politco.com, Nov. 19, 2008; http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15764.html
Matea Gold, "Profile: Xavier Becerra; Congressman tests his winning streak," Los Angeles Times, March 12, 2001
The official web site of the Smithsonian Institute;
CQ's Politics in America, 2008 edition
Harold Meyerson, "Los Angeles Times Interview with Xavier Becerra," Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1997