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Austin, 70, later transferred the duties of his office to Deputy
Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, Pentagon Press Secretary
Major General Pat Ryder said in a statement.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers criticized Austin last
month for failing to disclose a cancer diagnosis and subsequent
hospitalizations in December and January, including to President
Joe Biden. Some prominent Republicans, including former
President Donald Trump, called for Austin to be removed from his
job.
The incident was an embarrassment for Biden, and Austin
apologized during a televised news briefing. He is scheduled to
testify before Congress on Feb. 29 about the situation.
Biden, a Democrat, has said he has confidence in Austin despite
what the president agreed was a lapse in judgment.
With its announcement of the secretary's trip to the hospital
and the quick decision to transfer his duties to a deputy, the
Pentagon appeared determined to avoid a repeat of last month's
political uproar.
It was unclear how long Austin would remain hospitalized,
officials of the hospital said in a statement late on Sunday.
Austin's cancer prognosis remained excellent and the bladder
issue was not expected to change his anticipated full recovery,
the officials added.
Austin, a retired four-star general who led forces in Iraq and
is America's first Black defense secretary, was still in
hospital last month as U.S. forces launched a retaliatory strike
against an Iranian-backed militia leader in Baghdad.
There are now three different investigations into Austin's
behavior, including one by the office of the Pentagon's
Inspector General, a watchdog agency that tracks military waste,
fraud and abuse. The Republican chair of the House Armed
Services Committee, Mike Rogers, has called Austin to testify.
Austin is scheduled to travel to Brussels for a Wednesday
meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. It was not clear
if his hospitalization would affect those travel plans.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Long Beach, California; Additional
reporting by Anirudh Saligrama and Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru;
Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Stephen Coates)
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