U.S. Senate confirms Mark Esper as defense secretary

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted to confirm Mark Esper as secretary of defense, ending a nearly seven-month period that the Pentagon has been without a permanent chief.

Senators voted 90-8 in favor of the nomination of Esper, which was officially announced by the White House earlier this month.

In this June 26, 2019 file photo, Acting U.S. Secretary for Defense Mark Esper speaks during a press point with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg prior to a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels. [Photo: IC]

He's expected to be sworn in at the White House later in the day.

The secretary of the U.S. Army, who had also briefly served as acting Pentagon chief, is succeeding James Mattis who resigned late last year over policy disagreements with President Donald Trump.

The White House announced in May this year that Trump intended to tap then acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan to lead the Pentagon but the decision was reversed a month later when the former Boeing executive said that he was withdrawing.

Esper, 55, was sworn in as Army secretary in November 2017 after serving for years as a senior executive at Raytheon Company, a major defense contractor.

An Army veteran deployed for the 1990-91 Gulf War, Esper also has extensive experience working on Capitol Hill.