As Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) continues to block the Senate from approving more than 300 military promotions and nominations in a package vote, he and some of his fellow Republicans have begun pressing their Democrat counterparts to start scheduling votes on the nominees individually if they’re truly concerned about staffing the military.
For months, Mr. Tuberville has placed a hold on military promotions and nominations, which has slowed the Senate process for approving the promotions. The hold prevents the Senate from approving large batches of military promotions and nominations through a single unanimous consent vote, though it can still take up individual promotions and nominations through its normal procedures for debating nominations.
Mr. Tuberville has maintained this block as a means of challenging a new Department of Defense policy of reimbursing abortion-related travel for military personnel. Mr. Tuberville contends that the DOD policy violates the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or instances where a pregnancy poses a risk to the life of the mother. Mr. Tuberville has said he will maintain the hold until the DOD either retracts the abortion travel policy or Congress changes the relevant laws.
President Joe Biden, Democrat lawmakers, and DOD officials have all criticized Mr. Tuberville for the hold, stating the impasse has left critical military positions unfilled. Three members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have already retired, without fully Senate-confirmed replacements.
Mr. Tuberville’s critics have said these ongoing vacancies within the military pose a risk to military readiness and national security. In turn, Mr. Tuberville has insisted national security is not under serious risk and that all of the key military positions are still being filled by officials serving in an acting capacity.
In a Monday Senate floor speech, Mr. Tuberville argued further that if Democrats truly believed the vacancies posed a risk to national security, they’d begin taking floor votes to confirm nominees for key positions, such as the nomination of Air Force Gen. Charles “C.Q.” Brown to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“There’s nothing wrong with a floor vote on these nominations,” Mr. Tuberville said. “Democrats can either stop complaining about having acting officials, or they can confirm these nominees. You can’t have it both ways.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) offered a similar argument during a Tuesday hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee on the nomination of Gen. David Allvin to serve as the Air Force’s next Chief of Staff. At the hearing, Mr. Cotton noted that the Senate has taken up individual votes on military nominations in the past, such as that of Gen. Mark Milley.
“We could also easily confirm you if [Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer] would get off the dime and show that he actually cares about supporting our men and women in uniform,” Mr. Cotton said. “We voted just a few years ago for Mark Milley to be chairman of the joint chiefs. You may say that’s something special, but apparently Chuck Schumer doesn’t think it’s too special because he’s said he’s not going to have that vote for C.Q. Brown. Maybe my Democratic colleagues can go talk to Chuck Schumer as they’re always encouraging us to go talk to Tommy Tuberville.”
Sen. Tedd Budd (R-N.C.) took up the same argument during Tuesday’s Senate Armed Service Committee hearing.
“Let’s just remember that leader Schumer can bring all these wonderful nominees, highly qualified nominees to the floor for a vote,” Mr. Budd said.
Mr. Budd also argued that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin could also break the impasse if he would simply withdraw the DOD’s abortion-travel policy and “revert to the historical policy that we’ve had for decades.”
Senate GOP Stance ‘Laughable’: Sen. Kaine
During Tuesday’s Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said it was “laughable” that some Republicans would call on Mr. Schumer to take up individual votes for the various pending military promotions and nominees or blame the Democrat Senate Majority Leader in any way for the number of unapproved military promotions and nominations.
The Congressional Research Service has estimated it would take about 700 hours of Senate floor time to individually clear through fewer than 300 nominees—or about 89 days of eight-hour sessions. On the other hand, Mr. Tuberville initially notified the DOD of his plans to place a hold on military nominations on Dec. 9, 2022, and has maintained the hold for about seven months as the Senate’s backlog of military promotions and nominations has only grown.
Mr. Kaine said it was unlikely that Republicans would really suggest the Senate would go through around 300 military nominees one by one and likely would instead push to process only some nominations while the standoff over the DOD abortion travel policy plays out. Mr. Kaine then attacked that possibility.
“We don’t mind voting on people,” Mr. Kaine said. “But the implication is ‘why not vote on the top brass and just punish all the people below them.’ That seems to be the offer that’s being made by the GOP: vote on the top brass and punish everybody else.”
Mr. Tuberville’s hold on military nominations has also attracted criticism from some of his fellow Republicans. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said, “This is paralyzing the Department of Defense—the idea that one man in the Senate can hold this up for months.”
Mr. McCaul argued that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives had already come up with a solution to deal with the DOD abortion policy at the center of the Senate impasse by including a provision in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would simply repeal the abortion policy. The provision to reverse the DOD’s abortion policy would still need the approval of the Democrat-controlled Senate, which is unlikely to support repealing the abortion policy. Still, Mr. McCaul expressed confidence that the divided houses of Congress will “work out this abortion issue.”
