In the latest round of criticism over Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold on military nominations, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) accused the Alabama Republican of being “prepared to burn the military down” if the Department of Defense doesn’t meet his demands to rescind a policy that supports abortion-related travel.
“I think everybody’s been hoping that Sen. Tuberville would back down, and I think we have to come to the conclusion that that is not happening and that he is prepared to burn the military down,” Mr. Murphy told reporters outside a Senate pro forma session on Tuesday, The Hill reported.
Mr. Tuberville has kept a hold on the military nomination process for months, creating a backlog of around 300 pending nominations. The Senate is usually able to rapidly confirm large numbers of military promotions and nominations under unanimous consent rules. With Tuberville’s hold, the Senate can still confirm these nominations, but under much slower normal procedural rules.
Specifically, the Alabama Republican is maintaining the delay on military nominations in response to the DOD’s implementation of a policy that provides travel-related allowances for abortions for service members stationed in states where such procedures are restricted.
Current federal laws codified under the Hyde Amendment prohibit federal funds from going toward abortions, except in cases where a pregnancy threatens the life of the mother or a pregnancy comes about as a result of rape or incest. The DOD contends that its policy of supporting abortion-related travel is distinct enough to skirt the Hyde Amendment rules, but Mr. Tuberville insists otherwise, and has vowed to maintain his hold until the DOD retracts the policy or Congress acts to change the laws.
Mr. Tuberville has insisted he will maintain his hold until the DOD either rescinds the abortion policy or Congress passes legislation that expressly permits such abortion-related expenditure.
Efforts by Democrats to break the impasse have been unsuccessful so far. Last month, President Joe Biden said “I’d be willing to talk to [Mr. Tuberville] if I thought there’s any possibility he was changing this ridiculous position he has,” but Mr. Tuberville said he took the remark as a sign that the president doesn’t actually intend to discuss the issue with him at all.
In May, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced that he doesn’t support Mr. Tuberville’s hold on military nominations, but that comment from the Republican leader has also failed to break the stalemate.
Breaking the Logjam
In his comments on Tuesday, Mr. Murphy indicated he’s not hopeful that Mr. Tuberville will budge.
“Tuberville is not going to back down. He thinks he’s become a celebrity folk hero in the fringe right,” the Connecticut Democrat said. “He’s having the time of his life. If you want the military to function, you’re going to have to find a creative way to get around this guy because it doesn’t feel like he’s backing down.”
Mr. Murphy specifically said he hopes Senate Republicans will consider modifying the Senate procedural rules in a limited circumstance to allow batches of military promotions to proceed even with Mr. Tuberville’s opposition.
“I understand Republicans are not going to go for a permanent change in the rules, but I just think we have to start thinking creatively about breaking this logjam,” Mr. Murphy said.
On the other hand, the Democratic Senator rejected the idea of clearing some of the pending military nominations through the slower normal procedural rules.
Last month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told NBC News he’d be open to taking a standalone vote on the Pentagon’s abortion policy. Mr. Tuberville told NBC News he’d be open to the idea.
“That’s what I’ve been asking for all along—a standalone vote,” Mr. Tuberville said. “Just bring it to the floor and don’t let the Pentagon legislate.”
Still, it remains to be seen how this vote can be attached to a commitment to either end the DOD’s abortion policy or get Mr. Tuberville to end his hold on military nominations. If the Democrat-controlled Senate voted in favor of the DOD policy, it wouldn’t necessarily address the opposition Mr. Tuberville has described to the DOD deciding on policy. Even if enough Democrats joined Republicans in passing legislation to rescind the DOD abortion policy, President Biden could still veto it, and the policy would remain.
House Republicans included a provision to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would rescind the DOD abortion policy, attaching the issue to the broader defense omnibus. If the Democrat-controlled Senate allowed a similar provision to be attached to the Senate version of the NDAA, President Biden would be unable to veto the provision without rejecting the entire defense omnibus.
Conservatives Have Mixed Takes on Tuberville Hold
Although Mr. McConnell said he doesn’t favor Mr. Tuberville’s decision to withhold military nominations, he has said he’s reluctant to join with Democrats in negotiating some form of end-run plan that skirts the hold.
“I’m reluctant to go down that path,” Mr. McConnell said last month. “We have holds on both sides. What typically happens is you work it out and I think that’s where we ought to stay.”
In 2020, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) announced a blanket hold on more than 1,100 military promotions until the DOD addressed allegations that then-President Donald Trump was behind efforts to deny a promotion for Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, an Army officer who testified against President Trump in his first impeachment case. Ms. Duckworth ended the hold after less than two weeks when then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper told her that the Army promotion board supported Mr. Vindman’s promotion.
In an interview with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt said he opposes the military’s abortion policy, but said Mr. Tuberville’s hold is harming the military while the U.S. stands on the brink of conflict with China.
“We don’t have a commandant of the Marine Corps. We do not have a chief of staff of the Army for the first time in 200 years. More than 300 vacancies. It’s a mess. And I know that the Pentagon has violated the Hyde Amendment, and I know you’re pro-life,” Mr. Hewitt said. “But would you call Senator Tuberville and ask him to stop screwing up the military, because we’re on the brink of a conflict with China, and we cannot have this.”
Ms. Haley, who is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, did not explicitly condemn Mr. Tuberville’s hold on military promotions, but expressed dismay at the impasse in general.
“I appreciate what Tuberville’s trying to do. I do. Like it’s totally wrong that the Department of Defense is doing this,” said Ms. Haley, whose husband serves in the Army National Guard and is currently deployed. “But have we gotten so low that this is how we have to go about stopping it? I mean, at what point can we not go and have … Congressional members go to the Department of Defense and say, look, you have to go through Congress if you’re going to do this? You can’t suddenly decide you’re going to do this. Don’t … make us have to do this. I just think it shouldn’t get to this point.”
Mr. Hewitt and Ms. Haley continued the interview, touching on a range of additional topics, but the radio host ended the conversation by asking Ms. Haley to call Mr. Tuberville. She thanked him for the interview without committing to calling the Alabama Republican.