White House welcomes new Pentagon chief

The White House on Thursday welcomed the Senate vote that confirmed Ash Carter to be the new chief to run the Pentagon, looking forward to his role in working with the Republican-controlled Congress on defense spending issues.

"As secretary of defense, Ash will play a central role in our work with Congress to find a more responsible approach to defense spending that makes the department more efficient, preserves military readiness, and keeps faith with our men and women in uniform and their families," said President Barack Obama in a statement.

Carter has been regarded as one of the respected defense professionals in the U.S. Thursday's vote for the appointment of Obama's choice cleared the Senate floor easily with 93 to 5. Carter will replace Chuck Hagel and be President Obama's fourth defense secretary in six years.

During his Senate nomination hearing on Feb. 4, Carter said he would work with Congress to restore stability to the defense budget and pledged to tackle wasteful practices in the Pentagon.

Carter said the current automatic spending cut mechanism, known as sequestration, was risky to U.S. defense. "It introduces turbulence and uncertainty that are wasteful, and it conveys a misleading diminished picture of our power in the eyes of friends and foes alike," he said.

Carter will take the helm at the U.S. Department of Defense as Washington is bogged down in several complicated national security challenges across the globe.

One of the challenges was Obama's effort to urge the Congress to pass a fresh war power authorization against the extremist group Islamic State, which has been criticized by both parties in Congress.

Officials from the Obama administration said earlier that the president's new war power legislation would not incur extra spending.

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