US lawmakers slam Pentagon chief for keeping health secrets

U.S. lawmakers on Thursday sharply criticized Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for failing to inform the White House that he was hospitalized earlier this year due to complications from cancer treatment.

Democrats and Republicans alike expressed frustration at the secrecy, but a House Armed Services Committee hearing ultimately did not reveal why the information was withheld from other senior officials.

“It’s completely unacceptable that it took three days to notify the president of the United States that the secretary of defense was hospitalized and had no control over the Pentagon,” Rep. Mike Rogers, the committee’s Republican chairman, said at the hearing.

“The war between Ukraine and Israel is raging, our ships are under fire in the Red Sea, and our bases in Syria and Iraq are bracing for attack. But the commander in chief doesn’t know that his secretary of defense is no longer in action,” Rogers said.

Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democratic member of the committee, said the “lack of transparency” should not be repeated and “we need clearer and more transparent information about what’s going on in the Pentagon.”

Austin insisted that “command and control was never broken,” but said “what we didn’t do well was provide notification to senior leaders.”

The Pentagon chief reiterated that he “never told anyone not to notify the president, the White House or anyone else about my hospitalization,” but acknowledged that “we didn’t do it right.”

Austin, a 70-year-old career soldier, initially underwent minor surgery to treat cancer on December 22 and returned home the next day.

But on January 1, he was readmitted to the hospital due to complications including nausea and severe pain.

The White House was not informed of Austin’s hospitalization until January 4, Congress was not informed until the next day, and President Joe Biden was not informed of Austin’s cancer diagnosis until January 9.

Several Republican lawmakers have called for Austin — who apologized earlier this month for keeping his treatment secret — to be fired, but Biden has stood by him.

The Pentagon conducted a 30-day review of the situation and released a summary on Monday saying confidentiality measures were in place due to privacy concerns but found no evidence of intentional misconduct or obfuscation.