WASHINGTON _ The decision on whether to provide an exemption for former Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis to serve as President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of defense will fall to the next Congress.
House Armed Services Committee spokesman Claude H. Chafin told Roll Call on Monday that Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, is among those negotiating stand-alone legislation that would exempt Mattis from a law that prevents members of the military from taking one of the Pentagon's top three civilian posts if they have actively served in the past seven years.
Mattis, nicknamed "Mad Dog," left the service in 2013 after a three-year run as commander of the United States Central Command.
The congressional waiver would work around a provision in the 2008 defense policy law that requires the seven-year cooling-off period.
The legislation would be modeled on a similar measure passed in 1950 that allowed Gen. George C. Marshall to be appointed secretary of defense under President Harry Truman. At the time, Congress amended a law that barred any person who was active duty from serving as Defense secretary for 10 years.
