Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will face questions from Congress on Thursday in what is sure to be a tense hearing focused on his days-long delay notifying both lawmakers and President Joe Biden about his whereabouts after he was hospitalized following treatment for prostate cancer.
Austin, who is still recovering from complications after the prostate cancer procedure he had in December, will appear before the House Armed Services Committee. The hearing was requested by Republican chairman Mike Rogers, who said in January that Austin’s “unwillingness to provide candid and complete answers” regarding his hospitalization required a full committee hearing.
“Congress must understand what happened and who made decisions to prevent the disclosure of the whereabouts of a cabinet secretary,” Rogers said in a January 18 letter to Austin.
Austin’s January 1 hospitalization prompted a flurry of questions and reviews of Pentagon processes, including one that is ongoing by the Pentagon Inspector General. While Austin was taken to the hospital in an ambulance on January 1 — and admitted to critical care on January 2 — it wasn’t until January 4 that his deputy Kathleen Hicks and the White House were told he was in the hospital. Hicks was transferred some of his authorities on January 2 but did not know why, which the Pentagon has said was not unusual.
The next day, January 5, Congress and the public were informed.
Austin, an intensely private person, has since said that he “never directed anyone to keep my January hospitalization from the White House” and that the news of his cancer “shook” him.
“Frankly, my first instinct was to keep it private. I don’t think it’s news that I’m a pretty private guy, I never like burdening others with my problems,”…
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