Will lawmakers who opposed waiver to make Mattis eligible for Pentagon Chief oppose one for Austin?

Joe Biden has named retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin as his pick for Secretary of Defense, according to reports, but because it has been less than seven years since Austin was on active duty, Congress will need to grant a waiver to allow him to serve in the key post, a move that some legislators opposed several years ago regarding retired Marine Corps Gen. Jim Mattis.

“Civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy, and I will not vote for an exception to this rule,” New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said in January 2017, according to the Washington Post.

"Since 1947, we have required a minimum number of years of separation from the military before a retired service-member can be eligible to become the Secretary of Defense," Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said in a January 2017 statement. "The Congress that set this rule had just lived through World War II. They knew they were excluding many qualified officers. But they did it anyway - to ensure that such leaders would have time to transition from the perspective of a soldier to the perspective of a civilian, to reduce their attachment to one particular service branch, and to make clear that the military itself comes second to its civilian leaders.

"In 66 years, we have made only one exception," Warren noted. "I do not believe we should do so today."

And while Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, voted to approve the waiver related to Mattis, he indicated that he would not back such a waiver again: “Waiving the law should happen no more than once in a generation,” Reed said in 2017, according to the Post. “Therefore, I will not support a waiver for future nominees, nor will I support any effort to water down or repeal the statute in the future.”

The waiver regarding Mattis, a Trump nominee, was approved by 81 to 17 in the Senate and 268 to 151 in the House of Representatives, according to the news outlet.

If Congress supplies the needed waiver and he is confirmed to the post, the 67-year-old Austin, who retired from the military in 2016 after more than 40 years of service, would become the first African American to serve in the key role.

While media outlets have projected Joe Biden to be the winner of the 2020 presidential election, President Trump has not conceded in the contest.