The final Senate vote on Hegseth’s nomination is expected Friday night after a procedural hurdle was cleared Thursday. The Trump Cabinet nominee is battling multiple allegations of excessive drinking and sexual impropriety while pushing to be confirmed.

Two GOP senators voted against Hegseth in the procedural vote: Sens. Lisa Murkowksi (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine).

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was taken to a Washington, D.C. hospital on Sunday for treatment of "symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue", a Pentagon spokesman said.

Austin, 70, was retaining his duties during his hospitalization, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a written statement.

Austin was criticized last month for failing to disclose a cancer diagnosis and subsequent hospitalizations in December and January, including to President Joe Biden. He apologized during a televised news briefing.

House Republicans released impeachment articles against President Joe Biden's Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday.

The House Homeland Security Committee on Sunday released two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.  

“His lawless behavior was exactly what the Framers gave us the impeachment power to remedy,” Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., said of Mayorkas.  

The two impeachment articles “lay out a clear, compelling and irrefutable case for Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ impeachment,” said Green, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee.  

The Senate Armed Services Committee is probing national-security issues raised by Elon Musk’s decision not to extend the private Starlink satellite network to aid a Ukrainian attack on Russian warships near the Crimean coast.

Chairman Jack Reed said in a statement Thursday the reports on the use of Starlink exposed “serious national-security liability issues and the committee is engaged on this issue.”

“The committee is aggressively probing this issue from every angle,” he said.

A trio of Democratic senators sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday over concerns that tech billionaire Elon Musk may have personally impacted the war in Ukraine and by extension, U.S. foreign policy.

Musk confirmed earlier this month that he refused access to his Starlink satellite internet service to the Ukrainian military when they wanted to use it for an offensive operation in Crimea last year.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has called for a Senate inquiry into the alleged involvement of tech magnate Elon Musk in obstructing a Ukrainian drone's attempt to target Russia's naval fleet in the Black Sea last year.

"We need to investigate how this happened. What's in those contracts that permits him to have this kind of power?" Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and its subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities, told reporters during a Capitol Hill forum dedicated to discussions about artificial intelligence.

US President-elect Joe Biden has chosen retired General Lloyd Austin as his defence secretary, US media report.

If approved, the 67-year-old who retired in 2016 would become the first African-American to lead the Pentagon.

He would need a congressional waiver as seven years are required between active duty and becoming military chief.

Mr Biden has been facing calls including from Democratic Asian, Black and Latino caucuses to nominate minorities to senior cabinet posts.

President Trump will nominate acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan as secretary of defense, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted Thursday.

"Acting Secretary Shanahan has proven over the last several months that he is beyond qualified to lead the Department of Defense, and he will continue to do an excellent job," Sanders tweeted.

Shanahan, 56, spent virtually his entire adult life working at Boeing Co., where he helped shepherd the 787 Dreamliner aircraft.