Senate confirms top military nominees, Tuberville says his hold will continue

The Senate approved three key military nominees that had been held up by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., in overwhelmingly bipartisan votes. That means Gen. Eric Smith is the new Marine Corps commandant, Gen. Randy George is now chief of staff of the Army, and Air Force Gen. Charles Brown will become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when Gen. Mark Milley retires at the end of September. 

The delay in their approval led to a bitter fight. 

“These men should already be confirmed. They should already be serving in their new positions. The Senate should not have to go through procedural hoops just to please one brazen and misguided senator,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said when he announced the votes. 

Tuberville began placing holds on all military nominees — 300 and counting — in March. He is protesting a Pentagon policy that provides paid time off and travel expenses for military service members who get an abortion. 

“These three honorable men will finally be able to assume their positions and the abortion policy that Senator Tuberville abhors will remain in place. Senator Tuberville will have accomplished nothing,” Schumer said. 

Straight Arrow News asked Tuberville for his response to Schumer. 

“Well, we got three new promotions as of today. A lot more than he’s had. And he would have never done this had we not called his hand. And so he blinked, he knows how to do it,” Tuberville said. “Main thing is the American people need to see that we can do this, even with my holds. But he won’t admit it. And again, we’re gonna keep pushing to get the policy moved back because this is an illegal policy.” 

Tuberville’s hold prevented the nominees from being approved quickly and in large groups. They could still be approved individually with full votes. The big difference is the time it takes.

Tuberville responded to critics who contend spending extra time on military nominees takes away from other legislative priorities. 

“It’s going to. Problem is we’ve been doing this for seven months, we could have been doing a few a week. But they refused to do it because they didn’t think they were wrong. Well, they’re dead wrong on this. And so the American people on a controversial subject like this, abortion, need to have their voice heard through their senator and congressman. It doesn’t need to be dictated from the White House with a memo or the Pentagon,” Tuberville said. 

Tuberville said he will continue his hold on the other 300 nominees. He said if they’re going to be approved, the Pentagon can either change its abortion policy or the Senate can vote on each one individually.

Democrats have called Tuberville’s hold a threat to national security, while Republicans have said they disagree with the way in which he’s protesting. But when Schumer announced the votes, Republicans said he should have done it a while ago. 

“Because while everybody is grousing about the senator from Alabama, Chuck Schumer knew full well that he could have done this months and months ago. If we had been lining those nominees up, we wouldn’t have these vacancies today,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said. 

The Pentagon has also said the hold hurts its operations. Those who have been nominated but not approved serve in an acting capacity and have limits on their authority. Pentagon press secretary Gen. Pat Ryder recently made a football analogy, and said imagine if NFL coaches were serving in an acting capacity as the season started.