Senate Democrats are advancing a plan that would allow for the mass confirmation of hundreds of nominees for leadership roles across the military whose progression has been blocked by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who’s complained about the Defense Department assisting certain personnel seeking an abortion.
He has thwarted the usage of unanimous consent for affected nominations, spending months forcing leadership reshuffling across the military’s various branches. A small number of nominations have been approved individually, but moving through votes on each affected nomination would take a potentially massive amount of legislative time, and for one, government funding is running out again within mere days! The new plan for getting around the Alabamian was passed by the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday with evidently no GOP support. Approving the procedural update on the floor to allow for the Senate to move forward past Tuberville would require a three-fifths majority, meaning nine Republicans alongside all Senate Democrats.
“Senate Majority Leader Schumer said he will bring the resolution to the floor unless Senate Republicans quickly find some other way to force Tuberville’s hand,” POLITICO reported on Tuesday afternoon.
Tuberville, meanwhile, has received support for his procedurally debilitating complaints from figures like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), which says a lot about the nature of the direction he’s taken. The Defense Department support about which he’s been up in arms helps with travel if military personnel need to make a journey before accessing an abortion, with the GOP’s state-by-state efforts at restricting abortion having slowly expanded since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Military leaders have flatly resisted the prospect of relenting in their support for servicemembers’ health care needs in exchange for Tuberville going along with the orderly confirmation of leadership nominees.
One of the recently elevated picks approved by the Senate on an individual basis was Adm. Lisa Franchetti, who will now be leading the Navy and has become the first woman to serve in any role on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a military body.
