Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has vowed to block the promotions of senior military officers “until hell freezes over” if need be in protest of the Pentagon’s new abortion policy.
But he may only have to wait for Congress to vote on its annual defense spending bill later this year.
REPUBLICANS CHIP AWAY AT SCHUMER’S STRANGLEHOLD OVER THE SENATE
Tuberville has placed a hold on the nominations of some 180 general and flag officers over the policy, which pays for the travel costs and time off of service members receiving abortions.
He has demanded that the Pentagon reverse its policy, insisting that it circumvents Congress’s prohibition on using taxpayer dollars for abortions.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has pleaded with the senator to lift the hold, arguing the delays will affect military readiness, but has so far given no indication that he will rescind the policy.
That’s left the two sides in a seven-week standoff with no end in sight. “Secretary Austin could end the policy today, and I would lift my hold,” Tuberville said from the Senate floor on Tuesday. “Secretary Austin has chosen not to do that.”
The tactic has enraged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has repeatedly denounced Tuberville’s “abominable and outrageous” actions as an assault on women’s rights.
Schumer can still move the Pentagon nominees, which are normally advanced in large batches without controversy, but the Senate would have to vote on them one by one so long as Tuberville keeps his hold in place. That would eat up considerable floor time that the majority leader would rather spend on judicial nominees and legislation.
Senate Democrats have attempted to break the hold four times — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the chairwoman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, made 37 different motions for unanimous consent on the nominees last week — yet Tuberville has taken to the Senate floor to object in each case.
Although Tuberville’s fight is with the Pentagon, he sees a legislative offramp to the impasse: a vote on the policy by Congress.
“I’ve told them all along — let’s vote on it. I mean, that’s what we do,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Tuberville doubted Schumer would allow a vote on stand-alone legislation repealing the policy but said he preferred that it be dealt with in Congress’s annual defense spending bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, either way.
“I think the NDAA would be perfect,” he said.
Congress aims to pass the NDAA by October, the start of the next fiscal year, so any resolution to the conflict could still be months away. Last year, the Senate didn’t pass the bill until December.
In any case, Schumer is reluctant to give Tuberville a vote on the policy, fearing that it could incentivize other senators to use holds as leverage to extract political concessions.
He noted that Tuberville already received a vote to repeal a separate abortion policy by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The resolution, which Schumer could not stop from coming to the floor, failed to advance 51-48 in April.
But Republicans counter that any hesitancy from Schumer is because he does not want to expose his conference to a controversial vote on abortion policy.
“Sen. Schumer just doesn’t want his far-left, liberal members to have to go on record with respect to this matter and reveal that their position is out of the mainstream, and that’s what this really comes down to,” Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) told the Washington Examiner.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) speculated that Schumer is weighing whether Tuberville’s repeal could actually pass given Democrats’ threadbare majority in the Senate.
“I’m sure that’s in the back of his mind as he’s trying to figure out how to break the deadlock,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Warren, one of Tuberville’s colleagues on the Armed Services Committee, made the opposite argument — that Tuberville is only placing a hold on nominees because he doesn’t have the votes to get his legislation through the chamber.
“Sen. Tuberville is completely free to introduce whatever policy change he wants to try to make in the Armed Services Committee. … He can introduce that bill this afternoon, and if he can get a vote on it, so be it,” she told the Washington Examiner.
“The problem he’s got is, he doesn’t have a majority on that committee or in the Senate to get something like that passed. So, he’s trying to use leverage that he does not have in order to try to pass a bill that the majority of Americans don’t want to see us turn into law,” she added.
Even if Tuberville offers an amendment to the NDAA later this year, there’s no guarantee that it will get a vote. Lawmakers offer dozens, if not hundreds, of amendments to the defense bill, and it’s up to Senate leadership to work out which ones get brought to the Senate floor. With Democrats controlling Armed Services, it’s unlikely Tuberville could get the language added in committee, either.
Republicans have come to Tuberville’s defense over the hold. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told the Washington Examiner the Pentagon would budge if the military promotions were truly important to national security, while Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) noted he’s placed a hold of his own on a handful of nominees.
“They’re not complying with the law, so I think coach Tuberville has every right to do what he’s doing,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL).
But if the stalemate drags on for months longer, it will test the patience of his GOP colleagues. Already, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has raised concerns over Tuberville holding up nonpolitical nominees.
“I would prefer that Sen. Tuberville focus his holds on political appointees. They’re the ones who make the policy,” she told the Hill. “I think that would be an equally effective and better approach, but obviously, the approach he chooses is up to him.”
More than 600 general and flag officers will need Senate confirmation by the end of the year, and two commanders testified at a recent Armed Services hearing that while Tuberville’s hold is not affecting military readiness in the short term, it could cause “potential long-term” harm if generals decide to retire early over the bottleneck.
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Asked about the NDAA being one avenue to defuse the situation, GOP senators said they still want to see the Pentagon address Tuberville’s concerns. Republicans have nonetheless said he deserves a vote on the policy.
“It’s eminently reasonable for a U.S. senator to seek a vote,” Young said.
