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President-elect Joe Biden has tapped California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra to be the next Health and Human Services secretary, a historic choice that would make the former Los Angeles congressman the first Latino to hold the office, according to sources familiar with the decision. Becerra, 62, a rising star in California politics, has become one of the most important defenders of the Affordable Care Act, leading the fight to preserve the landmark law against efforts by the Trump administration and conservative states to persuade federal courts to repeal it. (Levey, Halper and McGreevy, 12/6)

A veteran of Washington, [Becerra] spent nearly 25 years in the House of Representatives culminating in a stint as chair of the Democratic caucus. Becerra also sat on the powerful House Ways and Means subcommittee overseeing health issues. Yet unlike earlier contenders to be Biden’s HHS secretary, he has not held a top health policy position before. Then-California Gov. Jerry Brown tapped Becerra to be attorney general in 2017, replacing Kamala Harris after she was elected to the Senate. (Pager, Cancryn and Ollstein, 12/6)

One of Becerra's highest-profile health care roles recently has been chief defender of the Affordable Care Act in court. With the Trump administration joining a coalition of Republican state attorneys general fighting to invalidate the landmark health reform law, Becerra has led a group of Democratic attorneys general arguing why the law remains valid. At issue is whether Congress' reducing the penalty for not having health insurance to zero rendered the individual mandate unconstitutional, which would cause the entire law to fall. (Zeleny, Sullivan and Luhby, 12/6)

“The A.C.A. has been life-changing and now through this pandemic, we can all see the value in having greater access to quality health care at affordable prices,” Mr. Becerra said in June, when he filed a brief with the Supreme Court in defense of the health care law. “Now is not the time to rip away our best tool to address very real and very deadly health disparities in our communities.” (Gay Stolberg and Shear, 12/6)

Becerra is the second high-profile Latino who Biden plans to nominate for a cabinet position, joining Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden's intended nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Biden had been under pressure to name more people of color to top posts. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, New Mexico Senator-elect Ben Ray Luján, said he was happy about Mayorkas but wanted to see more. (Ordoñez and Keith, 12/6)

Becerra has been jokingly known in Democratic legal circles as the man who sued Trump more than anyone else. Beyond health care, the California attorney general’s lawsuits centered on issues from immigration to environmental policies. (Alonso-Zaldivar, Balsamo and Lemire, 12/7)