Pentagon pick clears Congressional hurdle

House and Senate approve waiver to allow Lloyd J. Austin III, a retired four-star Army general, to serve as secretary of defense.

The House and Senate on Thursday approved a special waiver to allow Lloyd J. Austin III, a retired four-star Army general, to serve as secretary of defense, eliminating a hurdle to confirmation of a crucial member of President Biden’s national security team as congressional leaders rushed to quickly install him at the Pentagon.

The back-to-back votes came as Senate leaders pushed to set a time as early as Thursday evening to confirm General Austin, who would be the first Black American in the nation’s history to hold the post. Earlier in the day, the Armed Services Committee approved both the nomination and the special dispensation, which is required for any Pentagon chief who has been retired from active-duty military service for fewer than seven years.

The waiver passed both the House and the Senate in overwhelming bipartisan votes. The House took the unusual step of bypassing its own Armed Services Committee and sending the waiver directly to the floor, and in the Senate, lawmakers refrained from debating the measure on the floor, putting the measure to a vote just minutes after it was passed in the House. Congress approved a similar measure four years ago for President Donald J. Trump’s first defense secretary, Jim Mattis, a retired four-star Marine officer.

The flurry of activity on Capitol Hill reflected a sense of urgency among Democrats to rapidly install General Austin at the Pentagon, a step normally taken on a new president’s first day in office to signal the continuity of American power as the presidency changes hands.

For weeks, General Austin’s chances for getting the waiver seemed tenuous, with members of both parties saying they were reluctant to circumvent the statutory requirement twice in a row. Some Republicans clearly saw rejecting the waiver as a way to take a poke at one of Mr. Biden’s nominees without having to oppose his confirmation outright.

But over the last two weeks, officials from Mr. Biden’s transition team put intense pressure on Democrats to approve General Austin. Their effort was ultimately aided by Democratic leaders who emphasized the historic nature of the nomination and warned their members not to send a message of obstruction on the first full day of Mr. Biden’s presidency.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California leaned on her members on Thursday to grant General Austin the waiver, according to multiple Democrats familiar with the remarks, asking them on a private conference call: “Can you give the president of the United States the benefit of the doubt?”