For months now, as Townhall has been covering, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has been holding up military nominees and promotions in response to the Biden administration's Pentagon's abortion policy. Under the policy, which violates 10 U.S.C. 1093, servicemembers and their dependents can receive paid time off for abortions, and travel expenses are covered if the abortion takes place in another state. There is no gestational limit. The latest update highlights not only that Democrats are unwilling to compromise, but they are desperate, as they've now turned to a rule change, which requires support from Republicans they're not likely to get.
Punchbowl had the scoop last week on a proposal Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) that would go before the Senate Rules Committee:
Democrats are preparing to send a resolution to the Rules Committee that would allow most of the 300-plus promotions Tuberville is blocking to be considered on the floor en bloc. This would dramatically reduce the number of votes the Senate would need to take to approve the long-stalled promotions. It would be in effect for a little over a year.
The resolution, described to us by several sources, includes a carve-out for upper-level promotions like members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and combatant commanders, who would still require individual votes. The proposal technically qualifies as a “standing order,” not a permanent rules change.
It’s being spearheaded by Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), among others.
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Earlier this week, we scooped a parallel effort by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) to force floor votes on the two Joint Chiefs of Staff vacancies. On Wednesday, Sullivan’s proposal received the requisite number of signatures to move ahead.
A day after that report, though, news came out about the plan already hitting snags. The following day, Punchbowl's coverage highlighted how "Republicans cool to new push to circumvent Tuberville blockade," pointing to how even Republican members who are less than supportive of Tuberville's holds are not so keen to go along wih this procedural change:
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Senate Republicans say they’re eager to end Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) months-long blockade of military promotions. But they’re not quite ready to embrace a new proposal aimed at speeding up the confirmation process.
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But interviews with more than a dozen GOP senators — even those who oppose Tuberville’s moves — revealed a reluctance to support anything that could be seen as setting a new precedent that weakens individual senators’ power.
“The Senate doesn’t just run on rules, it runs on precedents as well,” Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), the Rules Committee’s top Republican, told us. “This would allow a majority to decide, at any time, that a member’s privileges could be overruled by a one-time exemption. I think that’s dangerous.”
This even includes Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) mentioned above, who is looking to fill the two vacant Joint Chiefs of Staff positions via a cloture vote, something he believe he will be "easily" be able to get the signatures for.
It's also worth emphasizing that Tuberville does have significant support from Republicans, not just in the Senate, but in the House as well. Grassroots leaders and veterans also support Tuberville with sticking to the rule of law and right to life with his holds, as do Alabama voters.
This is despite coverage from the maintream media that has been less than fully accurate on the matter. On last Thursday, The Hill jumped at the chance to claim in its opening paragraph that "Senate Democrats are working with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and a handful of Republicans on a rarely used procedural tactic to defeat Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) blockade of more than 360 military promotions, a stalemate that has consumed the Senate for months."
That outlet in particular has looked to sow discord and portray Republicans as being in disarray over the holds, despite the support Tuberville has.
The piece eventually names Republican senators who sound like they could be undecided, none of those "handful of Republicans," are mentioned. In fact, members willing to discuss how much of an issue it would be to change the rules are mentioned:
The resolution is already getting strong pushback from conservatives within the Senate GOP conference, and Democrats face a tough challenge in rounding up the nine Republican votes needed to pass it.
Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) said it will “probably” be a heavy lift to find the nine or 10 Republican votes needed to roll Tuberville.
“There’s a lot of discussion out there around it. We’ll see where that lands,” he said.
No Republican senator has yet expressed public support for the resolution, and those viewed as most likely to vote “yes” say they would prefer to resolve the impasse in another way.
One conservative senator warned there will be an intense political backlash against any GOP senator that votes with Democrats to circumvent Tuberville’s protest of the Pentagon’s policy of paying the travel expenses of service members who take leave to obtain abortions.
“I think that would be a hard vote for senators to take. I don’t know how you can seriously talk about the prerogatives of the institution and defending the rules if you’re willing to go out and kneecap one of your own senators who’s objecting to unanimous consent, which we do all the time,” said the lawmaker.
“It’s one thing that almost all Republican voters agree on — high-propensity [GOP] voters are pro-life,” the senator said. “It’s going to get reported that they’re not supporting Tuberville’s pro-life issue.”
CNN was more to the point with its headline, noting that "Republicans skeptical as Democrats eye rules change to overcome Tuberville’s hold on military nominations." TheMessenger similarly wrote that "Senate GOP Reluctant to Back Workaround on Tuberville Military Holds."
Further down still in The Hill article, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is quoted:
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said the military promotions being held up by Tuberville should come to the floor individually for votes, not en bloc, which would effectively limit the power of senators to raise objections against specific nominees.
“An effort to get around Tuberville’s hold? No, I think we should vote on them individually. I’m not in favor of every one of those nominees, but there are some that we should move on and he’s open to moving on them individually,” Rubio.
“The point he’s raising with the Pentagon is that they’re violating current law,” Rubio argued, citing the longstanding prohibition on spending federal dollars on abortions.
Rubio makes a particularly telling point here, about how the Democratically-controlled Senate could have voted on the nominees and promotions one by one. While it would take some time, Tuberville has made clear his position for months that he is not willing to cave. In fact, it's Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who caved last month when Tuberville asked for and was granted individual floor votes so as to confirm Gen. Eric Smith as the next commandant of the Marine Corps, Charles "C.Q." Brown as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Randy George to become chief of staff of the Army.
All three passed the Senate, and Tuberville made clear in his floor remarks that his holds will remain.
Rubio has not only been supportive of Tuberville's holds, he's also been critical of of how woke the military has become under the Biden administration, not merely when it comes to abortion, but also Critical Race Theory (CRT), drag shows, Pride month events, and priorities over pronoun usage.
While CNN briefly mentioned this move from Schumer, there was no such mention of Schumer in The Hill's report.
"I came here to this chamber to vote. And I reserve the right to seek another cloture position on the nominees in the future." https://t.co/aHyD6n19NE
— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) September 20, 2023
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