Senate confirms Austin as first Black defense secretary

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Friday voted overwhelmingly to confirm the first Black secretary of defense, retired four-star Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, who first needed Congress to approve a waiver in order for him to fill the Cabinet position.

Lawmakers voted 93-2 in a final floor vote. Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, were the only members to vote no.

President Joe Biden’s nomination of Austin, 67, was controversial among some Democrats because his retirement from the military happened less than seven years ago, which is the minimum period of time that’s required to be a civilian in order to lead the Defense Department.

The House and Senate quickly approved the waiver for Austin on Thursday. Only two other nominees have been granted such a waiver, George C. Marshall and James Mattis, who served under former President Donald Trump.

Dec. 18, 202004:17

Austin, who served in the Army for more than four decades, was commander of U.S. Central Command from 2013 to 2016 under former President Barack Obama, leading the U.S. military’s strategy in the Middle East and Central and South Asia.

Austin is the second Biden nominee to be confirmed since the president’s inauguration on Wednesday. The Senate confirmed Avril Haines as the director of national intelligence that day.

In testimony at his confirmation hearing earlier this week, Austin said that the “most immediate” challenge facing the U.S. is the coronavirus pandemic. He said that he would “fight hard” to “rid our ranks of racists and extremists.” Austin also said he would overturn the Trump administration’s ban on transgender military service, which Trump first ordered by tweet in 2017.

Biden wrote in an essay for The Atlantic in December that he and Austin “share a commitment to empowering our diplomats and development experts to lead our foreign policy, using force only as our last resort.”

The Senate is expected to vote soon on the nominations of Antony Blinken for secretary of state and Janet Yellen for treasury secretary. The Senate Finance Committee unanimously reported Yellen’s nomination to the floor Friday morning in a 26-0 vote.