US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has prostate cancer and his recent secretive hospital admission was for surgery and later to treat an urinary tract infection related to the operation, doctors have said.
The 70-year-old was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Maryland on December 22 and underwent surgery to treat the cancer. He developed the infection a week later.
Senior administration and defence officials were not told for days about his hospital admission or his cancer.
According to the doctors, the cancer was detected when Mr Austin had a regular screening in early December. They said he “underwent a minimally invasive surgical procedure” on December 22 and went home the next day, but on January 1 he reported nausea and severe abdominal, hip and leg pain due to the infection.
They said his prostate cancer was detected early, and his prognosis is excellent.
The White House chief of staff on Tuesday ordered cabinet members or secretaries to notify his office if they ever cannot perform their duties, as the Biden administration, reeling from learning of Mr Austin’s illness last week, mounts a policy review.
Jeff Zients, in a memo to cabinet secretaries, directed that they send the White House any existing procedures for delegating authority in the event of incapacitation or loss of communication by Friday.
While the review is ongoing, he is requiring agencies to notify his office and the office of cabinet affairs at the White House if an agency experiences or plans to experience a circumstance in which a cabinet head cannot perform their duties.
President Joe Biden and other senior officials were not informed for days that Mr Austin had been admitted to hospital and had handed power to his deputy. A Pentagon spokesman blamed the lapse on a key staff member being off with flu.
“Agencies should ensure that delegations are issued when a cabinet member is travelling to areas with limited or no access to communication, undergoing hospitalisation or a medical procedure requiring general anaesthesia, or otherwise in a circumstance when he or she may be unreachable,” Mr Zients’s memo said.
It also requires that agencies document when any such transfer of authorities occurs and that the person serving in the acting role promptly establish contact with relevant White House staff.
Austin went to hospital for what the Pentagon press secretary called an “elective procedure” but one serious enough that he temporarily transferred some of his authorities to his deputy, without telling her or other US leaders why. He went home the following day.
He also transferred some of his authorities to deputy defence secretary Kathleen Hicks after experiencing severe pain and being taken back to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre by ambulance and put into intensive care on January 1 — although Ms Hicks was not told the reason for three days.
The White House was not informed Mr Austin was in hospital until January 4, and the public and Congress did not learn of it until a day later.
The Pentagon has announced its own internal review and, in a memo issued on Monday, broadened the circle of leaders who would be informed of any delegation of authorities by the defence secretary to ensure that “proper and timely notification has been made to the president and White House and, as appropriate, the United States Congress and the American public”.
Any time authority is transferred, a wider range of officials will also be notified, to include the Pentagon’s general counsel, the chair and vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the combatant commanders, service secretaries, the service chiefs of staff, the White House Situation Room, and the senior staff of the secretary and deputy secretary of defence.
