The lone U.S. senator who has been holding up hundreds of military promotions for nearly a year to protest a Pentagon abortion policy says he’s standing down — mostly.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama told reporters on Tuesday that he is lifting his blockade on all officers below the four-star rank who have been awaiting a promotion since February, clearing the way for 425 senior military positions to be filled.
Within hours of the announcement, those promotions were unanimously approved by the Senate, a procedural move that has been impossible since February due to Tuberville’s consistent objections.
“These confirmations are long overdue, and should never have been held up in the first place,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement provided by the White House that was sharply critical of the conservative Republican.
“In the end, this was all pointless. Senator Tuberville, and the Republicans who stood with him, needlessly hurt hundreds of servicemembers and military families and threatened our national security – all to push a partisan agenda. I hope no one forgets what he did.”
Speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capital after a closed-door meeting with Republican senators, Tuberville admitted he failed to achieve his primary objective — reversing the policy that helps military members who travel to another state for an abortion — but insisted he was still fighting by holding up some of the highest-ranked promotions.
“I’ve still got a hold on, I think, 11 four-star generals. Everybody else is completely released by me,” he told reporters at the U.S. Capitol.
“It was pretty much a draw. They didn’t get what they wanted. We didn’t get what we wanted.”
For the past several weeks, a growing number of Republicans had joined Democrats, the White House, U.S. military leaders and experts in warning that the holds were having an effect on military readiness and retention at a time of growing global conflict.
“We’re certainly encouraged by the news,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at a press briefing Tuesday.
But he noted the four-star positions still being held up include the commanders of the Pacific Air Forces and Pacific Fleet, as well as the heads of U.S. Air Combat Command, Northern Command, Cyber Command and Space Command.
“Clearly, (those are) vital and critical organizations, all of which require experienced senior leaders in those positions.”
The conservative senator had been demanding the Pentagon drop a policy that covers travel expenses and paid leave for military members who seek abortion care in another state.
The policy was enacted shortly after Roe v. Wade was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, and Republican-led states began enacting restrictions or outright bans on abortion.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noted in his memo announcing the policy that it’s meant to ensure members don’t face unequal health-care access if they’re stationed in a state where abortion is restricted.
The Pentagon policy does not pay for abortions themselves, which are only performed by the Defense Department health-care staff if the life of the woman is at risk, or in cases of rape or incest.
Under normal circumstances, military promotions are typically agreed upon by unanimous consent in large groups, allowing them to take effect quickly and allow what military policy experts have called the “conveyor belt” of advancement through the ranks to keep humming along.
But just like in Canada’s House of Commons, such votes can fail if just one lawmaker objects like Tuberville has. The only other recourse is for promotions to be brought up one at a time through regular roll call votes, which can take an hour or two each.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Senate finally confirmed 425 of the held-up promotions by unanimous consent. If Tuberville’s hold on the remaining four-star positions remains, the Senate will have to take each one up individually.
Military officials and experts have warned it could take months or even years to get the hundreds newly-promoted officers into place and settle the long-term effects of the blockade.
“There’s going to be a lot of disruption, just to the normal cycle of things,” said Richard Shimooka, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute who studies American military policy.
Having a hold on high-level promotions, he explained, has an effect on lower-level officers who would then be promoted in kind. The military is capped with respect to the number of personnel it can have at each rank, so keeping a colonel from being promoted to a general means there are younger lieutenant-colonels who can’t get promoted to colonel.
That affects pay, retirement, lifestyle and future assignments — and in some fields where the private sector will pay more, it becomes harder to convince those highly trained young leaders to stay.
As the blockade dragged on, Pentagon leaders, senators and outside experts like Shimooka warned it was also creating uncertainty for officers awaiting promotions and their families, impacting their ability to find a home or schooling for their children, and other lifestyle issues.
Some officers were forced to take on additional duties as positions continued to be left unfilled, with sometimes disastrous results. The Marine Corps commandant, Gen. Eric Smith, suffered a heart attack last month after covering the responsibilities of the assistant commandant. The incident prompted the Senate to take a full roll-call vote to fill that position, along with a few other high-ranking posts, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Beyond the military ramifications, Tuberville’s stance also had a political impact, Shimooka said. He pointed to the growing anger expressed in public by other Republicans toward their fellow senator as an example of how Tuberville’s fight may have backfired.
“I think that he’s really kind of seen the writing on the wall, and how badly he has damaged his relationship with his own party, that he had no choice but to back down,” he said.
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