The House Armed Services Committee adopted a provision for the annual National Defense Authorization Act that would demand the Pentagon inform Congress why senior military officers were fired or dismissed within five days.

The requirement was introduced by Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and was adopted Thursday without objections in a bipartisan voice vote.

The provision comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired two dozen senior military officers since taking the helm at the Pentagon, prompting bipartisan worries that experienced officials are being dismissed without explanation.

Earlier this year, Hegseth fired widely respected Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, leading some House Republicans to voice opposition to the move, as they argued George was an experienced military leader.

Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) said he found George, who spent more than four decades in the Army and was close with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, to be a “patriotic American.”

“I won’t go through all of his background, but a distinguished representative of our Army, and I, too, regret the fact of the conditions that he left the service, and I think that our country will regret that circumstance; that’s another story,” Womack said during a House hearing in mid-April.

Even with it being adopted by the committee, Ryan’s measure is a long way away from being codified because the House and the Senate will have to adopt the wording before it heads to President Trump’s desk for his signature.

George’s ouster was the central theme during Driscoll’s hearings on Capitol Hill in April.

“There is no person that has more respect for Gen. George. … He was an amazing, transformational leader,” Driscoll told House lawmakers at the time. “That being said, the civilian leadership, the design of our system, is that they get to pick the leaders that they want and we execute on those orders.”

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