Senate Republicans break with Tuberville military blockade: ‘National security suicide mission’

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) blocked a GOP effort to confirm military promotions on the Senate floor as frustration over his blanket hold boiled over on Wednesday.

Tuberville has been delaying the confirmation of 376 general and flag officers over the Pentagon’s abortion policy, prompting multiple floor attempts by Senate Democrats to break the logjam. Each time, Tuberville has objected, keeping his hold in place.

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Republicans spent months defending Tuberville, in lockstep with his view that the department’s policy, which pays for the travel of servicewomen seeking abortions, was unconstitutional. But in private, Tuberville’s colleagues have fumed over his approach and the impact it is having on military readiness.

Those tensions spilled into the open on Wednesday as a handful of Republican senators, led by Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK), attempted to confirm each nominee by voice vote.

The senators, joined by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mitt Romney (R-UT), and Todd Young (R-IN), called up dozens of nominations, in each case detailing their decorated service.

“Just listen to these bios,” Sullivan said from the Senate floor. “This is the best of America, and these men and women have been serving and sacrificing honorably for literally decades.”

The Senate operates by unanimous consent, meaning a single member can object. One by one, Tuberville refused to allow the nominees’ confirmation.

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Republicans have spent months attempting to move Tuberville off his holds. They have proposed several off-ramps, most notably a vote to reverse the Pentagon policy. But Tuberville has not budged, insisting the department must drop its policy first.

Tuberville has challenged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to hold individual votes on the nominees. The hold merely prevents the Senate from considering the promotions in batches, as traditionally done.

Sullivan and Ernst noted this in calling the stand-alone votes. “This is regular order, by the way,” Sullivan said, mocking Tuberville’s objection.

Sullivan joked that he and Ernst were on a “joint op” to protect the military, at one point calling Tuberville’s blockade a “national security suicide mission” given the possibility that career service officers will eventually leave the force over it.

Ernst noted that Tuberville had signed cloture petitions, a document that forces a floor vote, for multiple nominees, only to oppose voice votes for them on Wednesday night.

“It’s a good thing I still have that discharge petition,” she quipped after Tuberville objected.

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Tuberville, under pressure from his party, did call a vote on the Joint Chiefs chairman last month. He did so again on Tuesday, this time to ensure the Marines were not without a deputy chief after the commandant was hospitalized.

But the votes have not released the pressure valve as Democrats plot their own attempt to overcome the hold, proposing a procedure that would allow them to consider the nominees in a bloc. Republicans have been reluctant to sign on to the push, but Ernst and Sullivan have not ruled out doing so.