Lawmakers set to grill Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over secret hospitalization

Lawmakers set to grill Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over secret hospitalization

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is set to appear before members of Congress on Thursday to answer questions about his days-long delay in notifying President Joe Biden and lawmakers of his secret hospitalization after his cancer diagnosis.

Austin is expected to come under heavy scrutiny when he appears before the House Armed Services Committee. Several Republican lawmakers had called on Austin to resign over the incident.

Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., launched an inquiry last month into Austin’s failure to disclose his hospitalization and requested his testimony on the matter. In letters to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks and Austin’s chief of staff, Kelly Magsamen, Rogers asked for details such as any medical sedation or general anesthesia Austin received, any instructions not to inform people about his hospitalization, and any official acts he performed during his hospitalization.

The Defense Department’s inspector general is conducting an internal review into the matter.

Austin has apologized for failing to properly handle and communicate his cancer diagnosis and hospitalization.

“I want to be crystal clear. We did not handle this right. And I did not handle this right,” Austin said at a news conference at the Pentagon this month.

“I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis. I should have also told my team and the American public, and I take full responsibility. I apologize to my teammates and to the American people,” he said.

Austin was later admitted to a critical care unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a bladder issue and transferred his duties to Hicks. The White House, Joint Chiefs of Staff and Congress were promptly notified of that hospitalization. Austin was released from the hospital days later.

Dr. John Maddox, Walter Reed’s trauma medical director, and Dr. Gregory Chesnut, the director of the center for prostate disease research at the hospital’s cancer center, said in a joint statement that Austin’s treatment for the bladder issue, which was corrected non-surgically, was not linked to the earlier cancer diagnosis “and will have no effect on his excellent cancer prognosis.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday received a closed briefing from the Defense Department on the results of its 30-day review looking into the process for transferring the functions and duties of the Defense secretary.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com