White House urges Senate GOP to pressure Tuberville on military nominations hold
Samantha-Jo Roth
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National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called on Senate Republicans to help find a path forward on Thursday as Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) continues to hold up the promotions of some 250 senior military officers in the Senate over his objection to the Defense Department’s abortion policy.
“We certainly urge and encourage other members of the Senate on the Republican side to put enough pressure on Sen. Tuberville to get him to lift his hold,” Kirby said during an interview on CNN. “I’m grateful for the work other Republican senators have done to try to find a way through this.”
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“There needs to be a break in this impasse because it is, again, it’s already had extended effects on our readiness,” he added.
Tuberville says he believes the policy, put in place in response to the Supreme Court‘s reversal of Roe v. Wade last year, is a violation of a federal law that limits federal funding of abortions to cases of rape, incest, or threats to the life of the mother.
Several senior Republicans on the Armed Services Committee have attempted to help resolve the dispute, pitching Tuberville the idea of a vote on the Pentagon’s abortion policy. However, Tuberville reiterated on Friday he would continue to block the nominations of general and flag officers until the Pentagon drops the policy.
“I will keep my hold until the Pentagon follows the law [or] Congress changes the law. That’s the way we do it here in the Senate,” Tuberville said during a speech on the floor of the Senate on Thursday. “A ‘show vote’ in committee is not good enough. We can do that all we want. It’s not going to make any difference. An amendment that gets stripped out on the floor by Sen. Schumer is not good enough.”
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), the No. 4 Republican in the Senate, introduced a bill in March that would reverse the policy and floated to Tuberville a committee vote on that measure as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. In exchange, Tuberville would drop his hold, but the Alabama senator has not been receptive.
Kirby emphasized the senator’s blockade on the nominees was hurting military families and readiness.
“What you do is you freeze certain commands, and you freeze certain organizations the way they are, and you stop having the ability of some of these generals and some of these admirals to move on,” Kirby explained. “If some of them end up retiring, then their replacements are going to be in activating capacities, and they may not have all the right authorities that they need in terms of executing the duties of those jobs, not to mention the immense disruption that this is going to have on military families. You know, summertime is our biggest move time.”
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Tuberville continues to maintain that the impact to military readiness has been overstated by Democrats and the White House.
“These military positions are being fulfilled by acting officials. These jobs are being done right now. They’re not empty,” he said.