Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) announced Tuesday that he would lift his blanket hold on military promotions, ending a nearly 10-month standoff over a Biden administration abortion policy that made the former football coach the target of bipartisan ire.
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“It’s been a long fight, we fought hard,” Tuberville said after announcing his decision to his colleagues at a closed-door lunch. “We just released them.”
The hold, which Tuberville began in February, applied to all senior military promotions, and hundreds of officers were caught up in its net. As officers increasingly complained of the toll on military readiness and morale, and as a war raged in the Middle East, Tuberville faced increasing pressure from his fellow Republicans to drop the hold.
He has now narrowed his hold to the 10 or so promotions at the four-star rank. Tuberville said he relinquished the hold because he wanted to keep Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) from bringing up a vote to get around his maneuver. He did not receive any concessions he previously demanded, such as a change to the military funding bill to address the abortion policy.
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“We got all we could get,” he told reporters.
The affable former football coach was left with few options after Schumer put forward a proposal that would allow the Senate to go around Tuberville’s holds, which had the Republican votes necessary to pass.
Tuberville’s hold led to a remarkably public confrontation with some of his GOP colleagues, who staged a late-night attempt to promote the officers he had blocked, forcing Tuberville to personally object to each one. Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Todd C. Young (Ind.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), all veterans, implored Tuberville on the Senate floor to lift his hold for the sake of national security.
“No matter whether you believe it or not, Senator Tuberville, this is doing great damage to our military,” Graham said then. “I don’t say that lightly; I’ve been trying to work with you for nine months.”
Behind closed doors, Republicans complained that Tuberville’s blockade was hurting them politically as well, given the harm to the military and the focus on abortion, which has been a losing issue at the polls for the GOP in recent elections. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took the rare step of publicly rebuking Tuberville, saying he should not be punishing “military heroes” for a Biden administration policy. Other Republican colleagues thought that Tuberville moved the goal posts of his demands, from initially just wanting a vote on the military abortion policy to demanding that it be rescinded altogether to allow promotions to go through.
For months, Tuberville said he wanted Schumer to do a full floor vote on each nominee to get around his hold, arguing that each one would enjoy bipartisan support and easily pass. But making it through the hundreds of nominees individually would take months of nonstop floor time — a prospect Schumer ruled out. And Democrats were concerned that allowing an individual senator to effectively shut down the chamber to confirm nonpolitical nominees would set a bad precedent.
A senior defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that as of Nov. 27, Tuberville’s hold had blocked 451 senior officers from promotion. They include Adm. Samuel Paparo, who is expected to take over as the next chief of the Indo-Pacific Command; Air Force Lt. Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, who is expected to become the four-star commander of Northern Command; and several officers who are expected to immediately take on responsibilities in the Middle East and Europe, as the Biden administration manages wars in both regions.
The list of promotions on hold was expected to continue growing if Tuberville did not drop his objections, with about three-quarters of the military’s more than 850 generals and admirals due to be blockaded by year’s end, the senior defense official said.
Keeping up with politics is easy with The 5-Minute Fix Newsletter, in your inbox weekdays.
“It’s been a long fight, we fought hard,” Tuberville said after announcing his decision to his colleagues at a closed-door lunch. “We just released them.”
The hold, which Tuberville began in February, applied to all senior military promotions, and hundreds of officers were caught up in its net. As officers increasingly complained of the toll on military readiness and morale, and as a war raged in the Middle East, Tuberville faced increasing pressure from his fellow Republicans to drop the hold.
He has now narrowed his hold to the 10 or so promotions at the four-star rank. Tuberville said he relinquished the hold because he wanted to keep Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) from bringing up a vote to get around his maneuver. He did not receive any concessions he previously demanded, such as a change to the military funding bill to address the abortion policy.
ADVERTISING
“We got all we could get,” he told reporters.
The affable former football coach was left with few options after Schumer put forward a proposal that would allow the Senate to go around Tuberville’s holds, which had the Republican votes necessary to pass.
Tuberville’s hold led to a remarkably public confrontation with some of his GOP colleagues, who staged a late-night attempt to promote the officers he had blocked, forcing Tuberville to personally object to each one. Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Todd C. Young (Ind.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), all veterans, implored Tuberville on the Senate floor to lift his hold for the sake of national security.
“No matter whether you believe it or not, Senator Tuberville, this is doing great damage to our military,” Graham said then. “I don’t say that lightly; I’ve been trying to work with you for nine months.”
Behind closed doors, Republicans complained that Tuberville’s blockade was hurting them politically as well, given the harm to the military and the focus on abortion, which has been a losing issue at the polls for the GOP in recent elections. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took the rare step of publicly rebuking Tuberville, saying he should not be punishing “military heroes” for a Biden administration policy. Other Republican colleagues thought that Tuberville moved the goal posts of his demands, from initially just wanting a vote on the military abortion policy to demanding that it be rescinded altogether to allow promotions to go through.
For months, Tuberville said he wanted Schumer to do a full floor vote on each nominee to get around his hold, arguing that each one would enjoy bipartisan support and easily pass. But making it through the hundreds of nominees individually would take months of nonstop floor time — a prospect Schumer ruled out. And Democrats were concerned that allowing an individual senator to effectively shut down the chamber to confirm nonpolitical nominees would set a bad precedent.
A senior defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that as of Nov. 27, Tuberville’s hold had blocked 451 senior officers from promotion. They include Adm. Samuel Paparo, who is expected to take over as the next chief of the Indo-Pacific Command; Air Force Lt. Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, who is expected to become the four-star commander of Northern Command; and several officers who are expected to immediately take on responsibilities in the Middle East and Europe, as the Biden administration manages wars in both regions.
The list of promotions on hold was expected to continue growing if Tuberville did not drop his objections, with about three-quarters of the military’s more than 850 generals and admirals due to be blockaded by year’s end, the senior defense official said.
