Ernst demands OMB audit every Biden admin head's schedule after Secretary Austin’s hospitalization

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FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is demanding the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) audit and publish every single Biden administration agency head’s schedule after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin flew under the radar for several days while he was hospitalized last month.

"I was shocked – as surely you were too – to learn Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spent much of the past month recovering from surgery, which he failed to disclose even to the Deputy Secretary or Commander-in-Chief," Ernst wrote in a letter sent to the OMB on Tuesday.

After an elective surgical procedure, Austin returned to work in a virtual capacity on Jan. 5 while still hospitalized, even authorizing airstrikes on Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis. He was released last Monday. Despite being admitted to Walter Reed on Jan.1, the Pentagon didn't inform the public, press or Congress until Jan. 5.

Officials also acknowledged that the White House had not been informed about Austin's hospitalization until Jan. 4.

"If true, this begs the question, is Secretary Austin working from home so frequently that he can disappear into the hospital for an entire week to undergo invasive surgery, and folks simply just think he’s working from home again? When department secretaries do work from home, are they as nonresponsive as someone under general anesthesia?" Ernst probed.

DEFENSE