The US Congress on Thursday voted on and approved a waiver that permits retired General Llyod Austin to serve under the Biden administration as the secretary of defense, reported CNN. 

A law that calls for a seven-year waiting period after active duty before serving before taking the job of secretary of defense was waived off for Austin, who will be the first African-American to take reins of the department. 

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Austin, who retired around five years before being nominated for the position, had to lobby around the House and Senate in order to convince the members to agree to grant the waiver. 

The waiver has previously been approved twice, including one for James Mattis, who served in the Trump administration, reported CNN. 

Austin was helped by senior officials of the committee like Representative Adam Smith who tweeted, “I have no doubt that civilian control of the military will be completely upheld by Secretary-designate Austin when he is our Secretary of Defense.”

On Thursday afternoon, Austin said at the Senate Armed Services Committee, “If confirmed, I will carry out the mission of the Department of Defense, always with the goal to deter war and ensure our nation’s security, and I will uphold the principle of civilian control of the military, as intended”, reported CNN.

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He added, “I understand and respect the reservations some of you have expressed about having another recently retired general at the head of the Department of Defense,” he said at the hearing. “The safety and security of our democracy demands competent civilian control of our armed forces, the subordination of military power to the civil.”