General Lloyd Austin, appointed as secretary of defense, attends the inauguration before Joe Biden took office as the 46th President of the United States on the Western Front of the US Capitol on Wednesday, January 20, 2021.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The Senate confirmed Lloyd Austin as the next Pentagon chief on Friday, making him the country’s first Black Defense secretary.
The Senate voted 93 to 2 to confirm Austin.
Austin’s confirmation follows Senate confirmation on Wednesday from Avril Haines, who became the first woman in the country’s 18 intelligence agencies to lead as national intelligence director.
In consecutive votes on Thursday, the House and Senate passed legislation that grants Austin, a retired four-star Army general, a resignation to lead the Pentagon. The Senate approved Austin’s resignation by a 69-27 vote, and the House approved the resignation by a 326 to 78 vote.
Under the National Security Act of 1947, Congress prohibited anyone from serving as secretary of defense within seven years of active service. Austin left the Army in 2016 and therefore demanded a special waiver from Congress to get around the seven-year rule.
Former President Donald Trump’s first secretary of defense, James Mattis, a retired four-star general in the Marine Corps, also needed the same resignation from Congress.
Before becoming the 28th secretary of defense, Austin served as a board member of defense giant Raytheon. Former Trump Pentagon chiefs Mattis Mark Esper and acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan also had ties to defense titans General Dynamics, Raytheon and Boeing.
The West Point graduate in 1975 would be the first black leader of the Pentagon, breaking one of the most enduring barriers in the United States government.