Mattis said: "Congress as a whole has met the present challenge with lassitude, not leadership".
Mattis assured him that that the current regime will son brief them about the policy on Afghanistan by mid-July.
American military officials acknowledge the situation in Afghanistan is at stalemate nearly 16 years after the war started, and it has deteriorated in recent months.
"We have spent six years just getting by, asking more and more of those who serve, and putting off the choices that have to be made".
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Mattis said Congress has "sidelined itself from its active constitutional oversight role" by failing to deliver a steady stream of funding to pay for new weapons and other critical gear.
At the same hearing, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford said he had gone to Mattis and Trump with "some options that might be considered" in order to help improve the security situation in Afghanistan. In late April, Trump similarly gave Mattis the authority to manage the USA troop levels in Iraq and Syria.
Deliberations include giving more authority to forces on the ground and taking more aggressive action against Taliban fighters.
A USA senior defense official told CNN that the decision concerning troop levels in Syria and Iraq was communicated via an internal policy memo on April 20.
Cop at frat brothers' hearing: Pledge 'looked like a corpse'
As a result of the incident, Penn State President Eric Barron permanently banned the fraternity from the university. In reference to the charges against the fraternity brothers, Piazza's father said he would be "good with 20 years".
This could mean a boost in the number of USA forces in Afghanistan, where 16 years of fighting against the Taliban and other militants has resulted in a stalemate.
'We've got to do things differently, ' Mattis acknowledged, noting only that any Afghanistan decision would come 'soon'.
Three U.S. soldiers were killed and another wounded Saturday when they were attacked by an Afghan soldier, who was then killed.
Mr Mattis has also declared himself "shocked" by the state of the USA military's readiness, blaming legal budget caps and the grind of 16 years of constant war. If the budget caps mandated by the law are breached, automatic spending reductions known as sequestration are triggered.
Mattis, known as Mad Dog from his time as a Marine General, said: 'I retired from military service three months after sequestration took effect. I'm fighting as hard as I can to increase defense spending. They also said the military will ramp up intelligence gathering in Nagarhar province, where most of the ISIS operatives are located.
Such campaigns had "exhausted our equipment faster than planned", he said.
Ahead of the four-hour hearing, Mattis also warned that North Korea posed the most urgent threat to worldwide peace and security, calling the regime's weapons programme a "clear and present danger" to all. The secretary has sought to reassure allies in both Europe and the Pacific in recent months that the United States still stands with them, after President Donald Trump repeatedly raised questions about whether he was committed to longstanding military alliances.
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