Lloyd Austin agrees to testify to Congress about his secret hospitalization

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has agreed to testify at a congressional hearing this month to answer questions about his failure to immediately tell top officials about his recent hospitalization. 

Austin will appear before the House Armed Services Committee on Feb. 29, committee spokesperson Justine Tripathi told NBC News. 

Last week, Austin returned to the Pentagon for the first time since his hospitalization and apologized for not properly handling and communicating his cancer diagnosis and treatment to President Joe Biden, the Pentagon staff and the general public.

“I want to be crystal clear. We did not handle this right, and I did not handle this right,” Austin told reporters. “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.”

Austin was admitted to the hospital Jan. 1 after he experienced complications from prostate cancer surgery days earlier, but his aides did not tell the White House until Jan. 4. He also didn’t inform Biden or other top officials about the cancer diagnosis he received in early December until Jan. 9 — just hours before officials at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center released the information publicly. 

Both Austin and the Defense Department have been under fire from lawmakers over his failure to immediately key administration officials about his condition.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., launched a formal inquiry last month, sending Austin a letter on Jan. 18 requesting that he appear at a coming hearing. 

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“I expect your full honesty and cooperation in this matter,” Rogers wrote. “Anything short of that is completely unacceptable.”

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Several Republican lawmakers called on Austin to resign after the debacle. Last month, Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Pentagon’s delay in notifying the White House was “unacceptable,” saying it showed a “shocking defiance of the law” by the Defense Department. 

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, also expressed concern over Austin’s behavior, calling it a “terrible mistake in judgment.” 

The Pentagon is conducting an internal review, as is the Defense Department’s inspector general.

Defense officials have said the department has already instituted some changes in procedure since the incident.