On Friday, the House voted in a 268 to 151 vote in favor of a waiver that would pave the way for retired four-star General James Mattis to be Secretary of Defense. The vote came after the Senate Armed Services Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, and the full Senate passed the waiver on Thursday.
The waiver gives Mattis a one time exemption to the requirement that the person who leads the Pentagon to be out of uniformed military service for at least seven years. The last time Congress allowed the waiver legislation to be bypassed was in 1950 for George Marshall, a former five-star Army general and Secretary of State.
A White House Spokesman said that President Barack Obama would sign the waiver legislation if Congress approved it before he left office.
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