The House on Friday passed the law change to allow retired Gen. James Mattis to serve as defense secretary, sending the change in law to the White House for signature.
The House passed the measure 268-151. The vote in favor included 36 Democrats. One Republican, Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., voted against the measure.
The law normally requires a military officer to be out of uniform for at least seven years before serving as secretary of defense to preserve civilian control of the military. Mattis retired from the Marine Corps in 2013, and as a result, requires an exemption from the law.
The waiver language overwhelmingly passed the Senate and Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, but passed the House Armed Services Committee on a party line vote after Democrats were angry that the transition team did not allow Mattis to testify there.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, said that preventing the former general from testifying is essentially stopping the House from doing its job.
“At the very first opportunity, he is choosing to completely ignore us for no reason. You can not tell me that Gen. Mattis couldn’t handle an hour and a half’s worth of questioning in the House Armed Services Committee,” Smith said on the House floor.
But the anger about how the perceived slight begins the incoming administration’s relationship with Congress extended to both sides of the aisle.
“We in Congress feel slighted that the Trump administration did not deign to have Gen. Mattis come and speak to us in the House,” Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and a former Marine, said on the House floor. “I do feel the same way that the ranking member feels in terms of what the administration, how they’re treating the House of Representatives.”
Still, the overwhelming majority of lawmakers felt that Mattis, who spent more than 40 years in the Marine Corps as well as time as the leader of U.S. Central Command, is more than qualified to do the job.
“I’m not sure what the Democrats’ concerns are, what they were hoping to have answered. … I really don’t need to know anything else,” Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, and a former Army Ranger, told the Washington Examiner.
Davidson said he hopes Mattis will focus more on the military missions and less on the priorities of the Obama administration, such as environmental protections and social changes including opening military service to transgender people.
“I think there’s a lot of enthusiasm for a secretary of defense who is going to be narrowly focused on our military being ready to fight and win wars,” he said.
The White House on Friday said Obama will sign the waiver.
