Rosa Berry

Portrait of Rosa Berry in 1895-1905.

President's Medal for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service (awarded by President Hull)

**Rosa Luxemburg Berry** is an American politician served as President of the United States from May 2021 to July 2021, Secretary of State and Chief of Staff to President Battle and President Broadman, she served as Secretary of Health and Human Services under the Bo Administration, she also served as the Secretary of the Environment under the Hull Administration. She was a former White House Press Secretary under the McKenna and Hull administration before stepping down, and she formerly served as Representative from Wyoming in 2020.

## Early Career

**Rosa L. Berry** joined V.C. Congress in April of 2020, entering after the "March Revolution" a month prior to her arrival led to an unexpected advancement of her career. Berry was soon elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Socialist Representative from Wyoming that same month in Senate District One. She served as a Major (O-4) in the United States Army from 1988-2006 and she was a rancher till her start in politics at the state level.

## Political Career

Three quarters into President Hull's term, former Secretary of the Environment Lester resigned and left open a seat needing to be filled. President Hull and White House Chief of Staff E Pluribus Unum offered Berry the position based off her previous interest in environmental issues especially concerning climate change and pollution by corporations. A week or two before the Hull administration was set to end, she announced her plans with then Attorney General Mac to file a class action lawsuit against DuPont Chemical for repeated offensives and multiple counts of pollution, obstruction of justice, intentional destruction of property, criminal negligence, and manslaughter. Unfortunately by the end of April 2020, tensions between President Hull and Secretary Berry ended with Berry resigning for Hull's actions against the Socialist Party, vetoing the Medicare For All bill that passed the House and Senate, and for proposing a budget that in her view, would significantly harm the American people. The lawsuit then died before it reached court.

By May of 2020, Berry became active in the campaigning of the May election and volunteered for Jess Reed's campaign for President and later became her campaign Chief of Staff, however, with the approaching Election Day coming; the major contenders of the election was Bo running under the Democratic nomination and Wilson under the Republican nomination. Berry suggested to Reed that it would be prudent to drop out and endorse Bo in order to not split the progressive vote and to ensure that the loss of moderate and right-wing Democrats to the Wilson campaign would not make Bo lose. Reed later dropped out and so ended Berry's term as a campaign Chief of Staff.

After Bo's election to the Presidency, Berry began finishing legislation with then- Chief Whip Ricca (SP), in which the legislation would overturn the Taft-Hartley Act and give more rights to workers to organize in the workplace. However, the bill failed in the House until Rep. Julian (SP) rewrote the bill and worked alongside Berry and Ricca to create the Free Enterprise Structure Act of 2020 which passed both the House and the Senate and was signed into law by President Bo on the 31st of May 2020.

Almost a week before the end of May, President Bo offered the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services to Berry because of her passionate advocacy of medicare and for reforming what she saw as a corrupt pharmaceutical and insurance industries. She was later confirmed by the House of Representatives and is currently serving as HHS Secretary.

As HHS Secretary, Berry has presided over a more active and expandatory role of Dept. of HHS, most notably deploying the Public Health Service to riots across the United States in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder and for proposing legislation to the House of Representatives that would allow the Department to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies and new program targeting youth to have more physical activity and healthier diets, along with other bills such as the Medicare Dental, Vision, Hearing Inclusion Act. Berry is said to be one of the most active HHS Secretaries in VC history.

On May of 2021, Berry was elected President of the United States, becoming the first trans President in American history and second female President elected. She left office on July 12, 2021 and was succeeded by President Holly Toward.