Washington — President-elect Joe Biden will formally announce Wednesday he intends to nominate retired Army General Lloyd Austin to serve as secretary of defense. Austin will be the first Black man to helm the Pentagon if confirmed by the Senate.
Mr. Biden unveiled his decision to tap Austin as defense secretary in an essay published Tuesday by The Atlantic, in which he called the retired Army general a "true and tested soldier and leader."
How to watch President-elect Joe Biden introduce his pick for defense secretary- What: President-elect Joe Biden introduces retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin as his nominee for secretary of defenseDate: Wednesday, December 9, 2020Time: 1:30 p.m.Location: Wilmington, DelawareOnline stream: Live on CBSN in the player above and on your mobile or streaming device
If his nomination is approved by the Senate, Austin, 67, will be the second former uniformed military commander to lead the Pentagon in the last four years, following former Marine General Jim Mattis, President Trump's first secretary of defense. Federal law requires military officers to wait seven years after retiring from active-duty service before serving in top civilian defense roles, such as Pentagon chief. But Congress can approve a waiver exempting Austin, who retired in 2016, from the law, as it did for Mattis in 2017.
Whether Congress will grant such a waiver, however, remains unclear, as several Republican and Democratic senators seemed hesitant to do so when pressed by reporters on Tuesday.
Austin, a four-star Army general who served in the military for more than 40 years, was the first African American to serve as commander of U.S. Central Command. He oversaw the withdrawal of troops from Iraq during the Obama administration.
If confirmed, Austin will take over the Defense Department as it prepares to help with distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine.
With 42 days until Mr. Biden is sworn in, the president-elect has begun to fill out his Cabinet and the top ranks of his administration. Mr. Biden has introduced his health, economic, national security and foreign policy teams, though so far he has yet to reveal who will serve as his attorney general, one of the so-called "Big Six" Cabinet seats — State, Defense, Justice, Treasury, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services.