The White House chief of staff on Tuesday ordered Cabinet heads to notify his office if they ever can't perform their duties, as the Biden administration, reeling from learning of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's surprise 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 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 hospitalized 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 Dec. 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 U.S. leaders why. He went home the following day.
He also transferred some of his authorities to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks after experiencing severe pain and being taken back to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center by ambulance and put into intensive care on Jan. 1. The White House was not informed he was in the hospital until Jan. 4.
