Image source, Getty Images
- author, Nadine Yousif
- role, BBC News
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The Pentagon announced that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was undergoing a medical procedure and had temporarily handed over his authority to his Deputy Secretary of Defense.
The procedure is elective, non-surgical, and unrelated to a cancer diagnosis.
Austin, 70, was diagnosed with prostate cancer late last year.
He was criticized for failing to disclose that he had been hospitalized in December and January.
Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement Friday night that Austin handed over power during the “successful, elective and minimally invasive” procedure.
The defense secretary still deals with bladder problems resulting from his cancer treatment.
Rear Admiral Ryder said the elective surgery “did not affect his favorable prognosis for his cancer.”
Austin was temporarily handed over his duties to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks on Friday evening while he receives treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Gen. Ryder said Friday that he had also notified the White House and Congress.
Austin previously apologized for not disclosing his previous hospitalizations, drawing criticism from both Republicans and Democrats over concerns about transparency and safety.
Republican Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said at the time that “it is completely unacceptable that it took three days to inform the president of the United States that the Secretary of Defense was in the hospital and no longer had control of the Department of Defense.”
The Secretary of Defense is just below the President in the U.S. military chain of command and is considered one of the most important members of the Cabinet.
As a result of the disclosure failures, three separate investigations were launched.
Austin testified before Congress about the incident in late February and accepted responsibility for the mistake.
“I should have immediately informed the President, my team, Congress and the American people about my cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment,” he told lawmakers.
“We didn’t handle this right, and I didn’t handle it right either.”
