White House orders review after Austin’s hospitalization

WASHINGTON — The White House ordered Cabinet secretaries Tuesday to keep President Biden’s staff informed when they may not be able to perform their duties after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized for several days last week without telling the president or his staff.

In a memo, Jeffrey Zients, the White House chief of staff, directed Cabinet officers to evaluate their current policies for delegating authority when a secretary is incapacitated and to forward those procedures to the White House for review. In the meantime, Zients made it clear that White House officials expected to be kept up to date about developments such as major medical issues.

“Notify the Offices of Cabinet Affairs and White House Chief of Staff in the event of a delegation of authority or potential delegation,” Zients wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The New York Times. “This notification should occur when agencies anticipate or are preparing for a delegation of authority and again when the delegation occurs.”

The directive by Zients came just before Austin’s doctors publicly disclosed that the secretary’s hospitalization stemmed from complications from prostate cancer surgery. The Pentagon had previously declined to specify what forced the secretary to be taken by ambulance to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., last week, failing to explain the nature of his condition even to the White House.

While doctors in their new statement disclosed that Austin first received the prostate cancer diagnosis in early December, aides to the president said neither Biden nor anyone else at the White House knew about the diagnosis until Tuesday morning when finally told by the Pentagon, at which point Zients informed Biden.

White House spokesperson John Kirby said that Biden’s “first and foremost concern is the secretary’s health” and that the president still had “full faith and confidence” in Austin.

But Kirby acknowledged concerns with the secrecy. “It’s certainly not good,” he told reporters at a briefing, “which is why we want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”