Chuck Hagel Takes Charge as Sec. of Defense
By: Fox News
Updated: February 27, 2013
Chuck Hagel took charge of the U.S. Defense Department on Wednesday after a bruising confirmation fight -- and two days before billions in budget cuts are scheduled to hit the military.
The Republican, who still faces skepticism and anger from some former Senate colleagues of his own party, was sworn in after a deeply divided chamber voted Tuesday to confirm him.
The twice-wounded Vietnam combat veteran now faces $46 billion in automatic, across-the-board budget cuts that will hit the Pentagon on Friday unless a deal can be made by the Obama administration and Congress to avoid them. But no talks on an agreement appeared to be under way.
Among Hagel's other challenges are deciding on troop levels in Afghanistan as the U.S. military emerges from two wars and fighting worldwide terrorism with smaller, deficit-driven budgets.
The top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jim Inhofe, said Hagel's record on Israel, Iran, defense spending and nuclear weapons "demonstrate, in my view, a profound and troubling lack of judgment on many of the critical issues he will now be confronted with as secretary of defense."
But Inhofe promised to work with Hagel to avoid the deep budget cuts that loom.
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