Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Tuesday that he will bring a resolution to the Senate floor to bypass Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blockade of military promotions and nominations. Meanwhile, Tuberville remains stubborn—and bone-headed—in his obstruction.
Here Tuberville is on Fox News, admitting that “our military is struggling to actually put a group together,” as if he weren’t single-handedly creating that struggle.
“I’m all for the military,” Tuberville ridiculously asserted, then doubled down on his refusal to allow any military promotions that have to be Senate-approved to come to the floor. More than 300 senior military personnel are stuck in limbo because of his blanket holds spurred by his opposition to a Pentagon policy that allows service members time off and travel stipends to travel across state lines for abortion services.
The resolution Schumer is going to bring up comes from Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, and independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. It would change the rules for the remainder of this session of the Senate to allow most of the nominations to be considered as a bloc, cutting off Tuberville’s objections that keep the Senate from passing them in voice votes. Traditionally, these nominations are done as blocs under unanimous consent because there are so many of them—it would take far too much time to handle them individually.
The promotion and confirmation votes for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and combatant commanders would be exempted from this resolution, and would still require individual votes. The resolution needs 60 votes to be enacted, so Democrats need to find nine Republicans who are as fed up with Tuberville and his antics as they are.
Perhaps to that end, Schumer has also relented a bit to Republicans who have been pushing him to allow individual votes on higher-ranking nominees. Democrats have steadfastly resisted that, trying to increase the pressure on Republicans to get them to force Tuberville to give up. That’s been less than successful.
Schumer has scheduled votes for the remaining vacancies on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Air Force Gen. David Allvin, and to confirm Lt. Gen. Christopher Mahoney as assistant commandant of the Marine Corps. Right now, thanks to Tuberville, there’s no one in charge of the Marines because Commandant Gen. Eric Smith has had an unspecified medical emergency and isn’t on the job.
This situation proves just how “supremely risky” Tuberville’s action is, Schumer said Tuesday. “Emergencies happen, and when they do the chain of command must be able to respond. But thanks to Senator Tuberville, there is no current No. 2 with the Marine Corps to fill in,” he continued.
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