WarSclerotic

Senate panel approves Mattis to be next defense secretary, Washington Examiner, Jacqueline Klimas, January 18, 2017

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday cleared one of the final hurdles for retired Gen. James Mattis to become defense secretary shortly after President-elect Trump takes office.

The committee voted 26-1 that the full Senate should approve the nomination once it’s received, meaning it will not have to be referred to the committee and can be approved by the full Senate as soon as the next president sends it to Capitol Hill, according to a committee press release.

There is precedent for the committee to act on a prospective nomination from someone who is not yet in office. The committee took a similar action to help speed approval of Donald Rumsfeld to be defense secretary on Jan. 19, 2001, one day before the inauguration of former President George W. Bush.

The committee and full Senate passed the waiver last week that will allow Mattis to serve as defense secretary so soon after leaving the Marine Corps. Current law requires someone to be out of uniform for seven years before serving as defense secretary, but Mattis just left the service in 2013.

This entry was posted on January 18, 2017 at 9:48 PM and is filed under Department of Defense, James Mattis, Secretary of Defense, Trump appointments, U.S. Senate. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Department of Defense, James Mattis, Secretary of Defense, Trump appointments, U.S. Senate