Affect of Alabama senator’s maintain on navy promotions grows every day

Since February, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville has blocked the unanimous consent request anytime the chamber tries to substantiate pending navy promotions. As of Friday morning, 221 normal or flag officer nominations had been ready for Senate approval.

Tuberville is obstructing the sometimes mundane Senate motion over his objections to a policy memo issued by Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin in February. The coverage permits service members to take administrative depart and be reimbursed for journey prices if they should journey to obtain non-covered reproductive well being care, including abortions.

The coverage doesn’t cowl the medicine or process, however Tuberville says it equates to taxpayer-funded abortions.

“I am going to drop my holds as quickly as Secretary Austin suspends the memo. The burden just isn’t on me to undo the coverage, this unlawful coverage. The burden is on the Biden administration to comply with the legislation,” mentioned Tuberville.

In a letter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sec. Austin mentioned the delayed promotions may have a cascading affect on navy readiness. He famous the openings would require some service members to juggle the tasks of a number of positions.

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Austin additionally defined that navy promotions work on a cycle, so delaying this cycle additionally impacts the following group. And uncertainty over the longer term may make some service members resolve to depart navy life altogether.

Past issues about navy readiness, Sen. Tim Kaine, a fellow member of the Senate Armed Companies Committee, mentioned the delay additionally impacts service members’ households.

“They have youngsters in class, they usually could have to maneuver throughout the nation and discover a new college. I imply, these are usually not simply robots. They’re human beings with households and desires, and they should know some certainty,” mentioned Kaine.

Democrats have been more and more important of Tuberville’s place, saying he is holding service members hostage for a coverage they don’t have anything to do with. They argue that this dialog ought to occur through the annual debate on the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act.

Whereas Tuberville is the face of this unprecedented maintain on navy promotions, his effort has been supported by fellow Republicans, together with Sens. Roger Marshall and Mike Lee.

Tuberville and others supporting his effort say these navy promotions may very well be authorized one after the other by means of common Senate process. However a Senate aide advised Scripps Information that with 221 pending nominations, doing that may take about 4 months and depart no time for some other Senate enterprise.

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