The Senate for months has been bogged down in a spat over the Pentagon’s decision to pay for the travel of servicewomen seeking an abortion.
Now, the House is getting a taste of the drama as a repeal of the policy makes its way to the House floor as an amendment to Congress’s annual defense bill.
FIVE CONTROVERSIAL AMENDMENTS COMPLICATING THE NDAA’S PASSAGE
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has been holding up the promotions of some 250 senior military officials in protest of the rule, announced by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in October.
Although the Pentagon does not pay for the procedure itself, Republicans argue the policy is a violation of the spirit if not letter of the Hyde Amendment, which bans using federal money for abortions.
Senate Republicans, put in the awkward position of opposing abortion or supporting the military, tolerated the holds for months, and still largely support Tuberville in his crusade against the Pentagon.
But the issue has come to a head in recent days as the feud begins to delay nominees at the highest echelons of the military. Support among Republicans has begun to waver, while Democrats grow ever more exasperated with the holds, which they warn will harm military readiness.
That exasperation began to spill over to the House this week as lawmakers work to pass the National Defense Authorization Act. The chamber is considering a slate of controversial amendments that will get a vote on the House floor, among them the repeal of the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy.
The House Rules Committee met overnight to tee up those votes, which span everything from the sale of cluster munitions to Ukraine to diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives in the military.
But abortion was center stage at the meeting. Not only did a vote on repeal get through, but the committee, led by Republicans, rejected a series of amendments Democrats offered relating to the procedure.
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) called for a vote to roll back restrictions on the use of Pentagon facilities for abortions. Another would have codified Austin’s memo into law.
“Just as every American woman should have the freedom to make decisions about her own reproductive healthcare,” Scanlon said, “our servicewomen should have the freedom to obtain the reproductive healthcare that meets their individual needs, regardless of whether they’ve been involuntarily stationed in states that have restricted such freedom.”
House Democrats also took direct aim at Tuberville. One amendment would have commissioned an analysis of how his holds are affecting military readiness.
Tuberville refuses to drop the holds for anything short of the Pentagon scrapping its abortion policy and has dismissed overtures from Senate leaders seeking an off-ramp to the crisis.
Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed (D-RI) sat down with Tuberville in the Senate cloakroom on Monday, his first extended conversation with the senator since the holds began.
The conversation, which lasted 10 to 15 minutes, was not fruitful — Tuberville is just as dug-in as ever on the issue.
“You can put in your article, I ain’t changing my mind,” he told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
But the overture reflects the growing pressure on Tuberville and even Democrats to end the impasse.
“I tried to point out that this is completely unprecedented, completely disruptive to the customs and traditions of the Senate, and it’s causing tremendous problems,” Reed told the Washington Examiner.
The conflict is unique to the Senate, which is responsible for approving President Joe Biden’s nominees. But that has not stopped House lawmakers from taking an interest.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), a centrist Republican and retired military officer, believes the impasse could be ended if Austin simply sat down in a room with Tuberville.
“I can’t understand — why doesn’t Secretary Austin go to Senator Tuberville and make a deal?” he asked. “There’s some middle ground here somewhere.”
Austin and Tuberville spoke over the phone for the first time on Thursday, the first call they’ve had since February.
Bacon threw out the idea of Austin giving service members unpaid leave to ensure the policy does not run afoul of the Hyde Amendment. As things stand today, the department also pays servicewomen for time off if they receive an abortion.
“There’s other measures that don’t cost taxpayers money,” he said.
Democrats insist that Austin is following the law and view a sit-down as futile if Tuberville himself is unwilling to compromise.
“Well, what are you going to ask him? ‘Well, I’m going to ask him to change the policy.’ He’s not going to do that — it’s legal and he feels it’s the best thing to do, and so he’ll continue doing that,” Reed told the Washington Examiner.
Meanwhile, Biden, speaking from Finland on Thursday, called on Senate Republicans to pressure Tuberville to drop the holds.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the ranking Republican on Armed Services, has spoken with the senator repeatedly in recent weeks, even joining Reed for his conversation with Tuberville.
But Tuberville says GOP leadership has so far not leaned on him to reverse course.
Republicans hoped that a vote on the policy would satisfy Tuberville — Reed gave its repeal a vote in committee last month — but he rejects the approach as an empty gesture given it would never pass in a Democratic-controlled Senate.
The Senate will in all likelihood take up the repeal once again on the floor as senators debate the NDAA next week.
But for now, the policy is reigniting divisions among House Republicans over abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), an outspoken centrist who is to the left of her GOP colleagues on abortion, believes her conference should focus less on the issue. Although she has not said how she will vote on repeal of the Pentagon’s policy, she indicated this week that she hopes the NDAA won’t alienate female voters from her party.
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“As a Republican, I want to make sure that we are showing compassion to women and that we don’t drop the ball this week, so that’s my concern,” she said.
The House will vote on 369 amendments over the next two days as it works to pass the NDAA before the week’s end. Eighty of those amendments are considered controversial.
