Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has teed up a vote on three high-level Pentagon nominees blocked by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), a major reversal in a stalemate over the department’s abortion policy.
Tuberville has placed a blanket hold on all Pentagon nominees over its decision to pay for the travel expenses of servicewomen seeking abortions, arguing it runs afoul of the Hyde Amendment. That hold, now in its seventh month, applies to 300-plus nominees, including several members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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Schumer had refused to vote on them one by one, as he is still able to do under Senate rules, but a gambit by Tuberville to force a vote himself led the majority leader to preempt him.
Schumer announced from the floor on Wednesday that the chamber would move three nominees — Randy George, to be chief of staff to the Army, C.Q. Brown, to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Eric Smith, to be Marine Corps commandant.
Tuberville had circulated what’s known as a cloture petition on Tuesday, garnering enough Republican signatures to endrun Schumer and tee up a procedural vote on Smith.
But Schumer, decrying what he called an “act of desperation” by Tuberville, moved first. He called on the Senate to vote on the three nominees Wednesday afternoon.
For months, Schumer has railed on Tuberville, saying his blanket hold is harming national security and leaving apolitical service members stuck in limbo.
The petition by Tuberville represented an attempt to shift the blame back onto Schumer, who rejected the idea of moving the nominees individually because of the precedent it would set on so-called hostage-taking.
“Sen. Tuberville is seeking to use a procedural step to overcome his very own holds. Yes, you heard that right. Sen. Tuberville is seeking to undo his own holds,” Schumer said in floor remarks. “The man who is holding everything up is trying to obfuscate things by playing this ruse on the floor. Sen. Tuberville is essentially trying to make himself the gatekeeper of which officers are promoted and who sits and waits.”
“I’ve made it clear that we will not allow anyone to shift this onto Democrats,” he added. “The blame — the blame — falls squarely on the shoulders of the senior senator from Alabama.”
Under Senate procedure, it would take until Friday or later to vote on the nominees. But Schumer indicated he would seek unanimous consent to hold votes the same day.
Tuberville, who emerged from a Senate Republican lunch shortly after Schumer’s floor speech, welcomed the news and indicated he would not object to holding the vote Wednesday.
“It’s about time. I’ve been calling for that for months. Finally — finally, starting to do his job. I mean, at the end of the day, that’s what we’ve been asking for,” he told reporters.
Tuberville has committed to keeping a hold on the remaining Pentagon nominees until the department reverses its policy or Democrats codify it into law.
Democrats were mum Wednesday morning on how they would vote should Tuberville move to invoke cloture himself but echoed Schumer in calling the tactic a desperate ploy to get out from under bipartisan criticism. Though Senate Republicans are by and large supportive of Tuberville, a number of defense hawks have expressed frustration with the effect his hold is having on military readiness.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a member of the Armed Services Committee, framed Tuberville’s move as a way to relieve the pressure he’s facing.
“The idea that Sen. Tuberville can just pick off one leader here and one leader there and he decides where we actually have military taking the assignments that they were given months ago, it’s just fundamentally wrong,” she told the Washington Examiner. “I get that he’s feeling some heat, but the right answer is lift the hold and let our military leadership do their job.”
But Senate GOP leaders stood behind his tactic ahead of Schumer announcing the votes.
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“What Tommy Tuberville is doing is something that Chuck Schumer should have done months ago,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), a member of leadership and the Armed Services Committee.
“Chuck Schumer, Chuck Schumer, folks,” she added. “It’s all on Chuck Schumer.”
Emily Jacobs contributed to this report.
