Three top Pentagon officials have called on Sen. Tommy Tuberville to stop blocking military promotions over his opposition to the Pentagon’s abortion policy.
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that Mr. Tuberville’s “blanket and unprecedented” six-month hold on military nominees is targeting an abortion policy that is “critical and necessary to meet our obligations to the force.”
The policy reimburses service members and their families for travel needed to obtain an abortion.
“Placing a blanket hold on all general and flag officer nominees, who as apolitical officials have traditionally been exempt from the hold process, is unfair to these military leaders and their families,” they wrote. “And it is putting our national security at risk.”
The Army, Navy and Marine Corps currently have no Senate-confirmed service chief in place.
Mr. Tuberville, Alabama Republican, is delaying the confirmation of nearly 300 military nominees.
“Across the services, many generals and admirals are being forced to perform two roles simultaneously,” the leaders wrote. “The strain of this double duty places a real and unfair burden on these officers, the organizations they lead and their families.”
Mr. Tuberville began blocking nominees in March, when he objected to confirming a group of Department of Defense nominees by unanimous consent.
In their letter, the leaders wrote that this hold has caused mental and financial stress for those in leadership positions.
“These military leaders are being forced to endure costly separations from their families—a painful experience they have come to know from nearly 20 years of deployments to places such as Iraq and Afghanistan,” the letter said. “All because of the actions of a single senator.”
In the Senate, one senator is able to hold up legislation and nominations lawmakers seek to approve by voice vote. The Senate can approve the nominations one by one, but they have argued doing so would require too much time.
On Saturday, Mr. Tuberville posted on X, formerly Twitter, blaming the hold-up on the Biden administration, who he said, “injected politics into the military and imposed an unlawful abortion policy on the American taxpayers. I am trying to get politics out of the military.”
“It’s not news that Joe Biden’s hand-picked civilian appointees are all parroting the party line,” Steven Stafford, communications director for Mr. Tuberville said in a response to The Washington Times. “If Democrats were actually concerned about readiness, then Chuck Schumer would be scheduling votes on military nominations right now.”
“[Mr. Tuberville] is not blocking votes; he is forcing them. Chuck Schumer could confirm all of the service chiefs in one day—but he refuses. Instead he just took five weeks off. Clearly he is not worried about this affecting readiness,” he said.
In July, hundreds of military family members signed a petition calling for Mr. Tuberville to stop his hold on military appointments. The petition was delivered to the offices of Senate leaders Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat, and Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, along with Mr. Tuberville.
“We believe that the vast majority of senators and of Americans across the political spectrum recognize the stakes of this moment and the dangers of politicizing our military leaders,” the letter ended with. “It is time to lift this dangerous hold and confirm our senior military leaders.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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