White House orders Cabinet secretaries to notify when they can't perform duties after Austin illness

White House orders Cabinet secretaries to notify when they can't perform duties after Austin illness

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.

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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 where an Cabinet head can't perform their duties.

The memo comes after President Joe Biden and other top officials weren't informed for days that Austin had been hospitalised and had turned over power to his deputy. A Pentagon spokesman blamed the lapse on a key staffer being out sick with the flu.

A copy of the memo was obtained by the Associated Press.

Austin, 70, went to the hospital on December 22 for what the Pentagon press secretary called an “elective procedure” but one serious enough that Austin 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. The White House was not informed he was in the hospital until January 4. (AP) GRS GRS