Tuberville Announces End to Military Promotions Blockade, With Key Exceptions

Senator Tuberville has announced that he is ending his nearly 10-month-long blockade of more than 350 military promotions. He will maintain his hold, though, on those officers who are waiting for their fourth star.“We didn’t get the win that we wanted,” Mr. Tuberville told reporters after a meeting of Republican senators Tuesday. He began his hold to protest an abortion policy instituted by the Department of Defense that allows servicewomen to take time off and be reimbursed for travel when they obtain abortions in a state other than where they are posted. “We’ve still got the bad policy,” he added. “We tried to stand up for the taxpayers.” When asked when the blockade would be lifted, he said, “They are released as we speak.”There are only 11 officers awaiting promotion to the four-star level, including nominees for vice chiefs of staff for the Air Force, Army, naval operations, and space operations. Other nominees who will continue to suffer the senator’s hold include the head of Northern Command, the commander of Pacific air forces, and the commander of the Pacific fleet, among others. One GOP senator and Army veteran who has been leading the fight against the blockade, Senator Ernst, vented her frustrations about Mr. Tuberville to Punchbowl News before she went into the meeting with her colleagues on Tuesday. “I don’t know what to expect” from Mr. Tuberville, she said. “I’ll be honest. It changes every 5 minutes.”Ms. Ernst and other Senate veterans have for months been demanding Mr. Tuberville drop his hold, to no avail. “We are holding them hostage,” Ms. Ernst previously told the Sun after she pushed to lift the hold. “This is unacceptable. … We are going to keep working.”In November, Ms. Ernst and three colleagues who are also veterans of the Armed Forces — Senators Sullivan, Graham, and Young — spent several hours on the Senate floor asking for “unanimous consent” to approve 60 of the officer nominees, but Mr. Tuberville was in the back of the chamber, objecting every time. “You’ve just denied this lady a promotion,” Mr. Graham said to Mr. Tuberville on the Senate floor after he objected to an officer’s promotion. “You did that. All of us are ready to promote her because she deserves to be promoted. She had nothing to do with this policy.”Alabama’s senior senator began to feel the heat from his fellow Republicans as the Joint Chiefs of Staff positions were due to be vacated on October 1. He had previously said that he would not allow the nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General C.Q. Brown, to receive a floor vote. Mr. Tuberville floated the idea of allowing General Mark Milley to remain in the chairmanship, though that is not permitted under federal law. Mr. Tuberville was then placed in a vice by Senate Democrats when the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Reed, and Senator Sinema released the text of a “standing order,” or temporary rule change, that would have allowed the Senate to vote on the nominations over Mr. Tuberville’s objections. After the Senate Rules Committee adopted the standing order and sent it to the floor, Senator Schumer said he would bring it up for a vote to circumnavigate Mr. Tuberville.“One member of the Senate, the senior senator from Alabama, has defied long-standing Senate custom and prevented the swift bipartisan confirmation of hundreds of generals and flag officers,” Mr. Schumer said. “What Senator Tuberville is truly an anomaly that does much harm and requires a response. … I will bring it to the floor shortly for a vote.”

Tuberville Announces End to Military Promotions Blockade, With Key Exceptions

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