OPINION — “For months, Senator [Tommy] Tuberville [R-Ala.] has said, if individual nominees are brought up for a vote one at a time, he will be fine with that. On September 6, he said: ‘I am not holding up nominations for being approved. They can bring them to the floor one at a time.’ Well, tonight, that is exactly what we are going to do—individual votes on individual nominees, just as Senator Tuberville has requested.”
That was Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) last Wednesday evening who, with three Republican colleagues, Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Todd Young (R-Ind.), held the Senate floor for more than three hours attempting to get voice votes to approve – one at a time — the nominations of 61 different senior military officers from four-star generals and admirals down to one multi-medaled Army colonel.
Tuberville was in the Senate chamber the whole time.
What transpired in those hours is worth reviewing because of what it says, not just about the impact of the Tuberville holds on the military, but also about the current state of our politics.
Let’s start with Tuberville’s own justification as stated Wednesday night for preventing the promotions in rank and new positions for military officers that normally are approved in bulk by voice votes of the Senate.
“Nine months ago,” Tuberville said, “the Pentagon announced — announced by memo — that they would start using our taxpayer dollars to facilitate abortion. The Pentagon is now paying for travel and extra time off for service members and their dependents to get abortions. Congress never voted for this. We also never appropriated the money for this. There is no law that allows them to do this. In fact, there is a law that says they can’t do this.”
The law he is referring to is the Hyde amendment. However, on October 3, 2022, when the Pentagon was formulating its memo, it got an opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel which said, “the Department of Defense may lawfully expend funds to pay for service members and their dependents to travel to obtain abortions that DoD cannot itself perform due to statutory restrictions [the Hyde amendment]. DoD may lawfully expend funds to pay for such travel pursuant to both its express statutory authorities and, independently, the necessary expense doctrine.”
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Not satisfied with that, Tuberville last March, requested the General Accountability Office (GAO) look into another element related to the legality of the Pentagon payment for travel. In a September 23, response, the GAO said, after studying the matter, the DoD decision to allow “administrative absence, and travel and transportation policies for the purposes of allowing service members to seek traditionally non-covered medical procedures, including elective abortions, complies with applicable Federal law.”
Despite those two findings, and without mentioning the contrary view of two government agencies, Tuberville last Wednesday night said on the Senate floor, “One more time: There is a law that says they can’t do this, created in this room…So this is a policy that is illegal and immoral. This is about life, and it is also about the rule of law.”
Sullivan, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves, opened his presentation last Wednesday with a description of the impact Tuberville’s holds has had on the military.
“I want the American people to know right now,” Sullivan said, “376 promotions to one-, two-, three-, and four-star generals and admirals are being held. It is estimated that, by the end of this year, 89 percent of all general officer positions in the U.S. military will be affected by the current holds from Senator Tuberville. Either the members have to be forced to retire, positions not filled, in acting capacity, or will be unable to retire — this is pretty much the entire officer corps. This is hugely disruptive to readiness.”
He listed among positions affected were the heads of the “Seventh Fleet, which is our fighting naval force in the Taiwan Strait; the Fifth Fleet, the fighting naval force in the Middle East…It goes on and on — NATO Deputy Chairman, a three-star job, empty; Deputy U.S. [Central Command] Commander, empty; the head of the Navy nuclear program, the head of missile defense—all non-confirmed.”
Sullivan also described the “growing bitterness within the ranks of our military, driven by this fact, and I want people to understand this. The men and women in the military who served our country so well for decades — probably the most combat-experienced generation since World War II — have made huge sacrifices, multiple deployments, and now their careers are being punished over a policy dispute they had nothing to do with and no power to resolve.”
As a result, Sullivan said, “These holds also pose strategic risks to our force. What does that mean? We are starting to see military officers saying: Admirals and generals, I am getting out. Or they have to get out if they are going to be timed out.”
Seeking a compromise with Tuberville, Sullivan said, “The one we are working on now: Lift the hold on the military officers who have nothing to do with this dispute and can’t resolve it anyway, and put a hold on the Biden nominee for Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, who is in charge of this issue. Let’s do that. That is a good compromise.”
Sen. Graham, who unsuccessfully sought Tuberville’s approval to promote Air Force Maj. Gen. Laura L. Lenderman to be a lieutenant general and Deputy Commander, Pacific Air Forces, offered another avenue for Tuberville to take.
“We have courts,” Graham said, “If you think they [Pentagon leadership] have done something illegal, go to court. That is how you handle these things. The Pentagon has issued a legal opinion I disagree with, saying this doesn’t violate the Hyde Amendment. I disagree with it. Here is what is going to happen. You just denied this lady a promotion. You did that. All of us are ready to promote her because she deserves to be promoted. She had nothing to do with this policy. Let me say it again. Everybody in this body could find an issue with any administration they don’t agree with. And what we are going to do is open up Pandora’s box.”
Graham went on, “I just hope we don’t do this routinely, because if this is the norm, who the hell wants to serve in the military when your promotion can be canned based on something you had nothing to do with?”
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Early on, Sullivan said when they began to bring up names, “My colleague from Alabama has said publicly, hey, bring them up one at a time. And we are asking for a voice vote, so that is a vote. So we are doing what he said, not sure why he is objecting. Maybe he can explain that in a minute when I bring up another—a real hero by the way.”
Tuberville said nothing in response to that question.
The Republican trio in turn, cited the service records of individual officers and then sought unanimous consent for a one-by-one voice vote. Each presentation was followed Tuberville saying, “I object,” which he ended up doing 61 times.
After an hour, Sullivan raised his previous question: “We are doing them one at a time, one at a time. I thought that is what my colleague and friend from Alabama wanted. He still hasn’t explained why ‘one at a time’ is not what he wanted, but maybe he will do that…There is no explanation over there so far,” looking over to Tuberville.
After three more names drew Tuberville objections, Sen. Ernst said, ‘I want to talk about making these individuals political pawns in the grand scheme. So, the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) had recently done a survey. And they did surveys in every State and overseas territory of their members. These are veterans. Polls indicate there is a growing wedge between the veteran community and the colleagues on this side [Republican] of the aisle and political decisions that harm the troops will affect the decisions of VFW members in upcoming elections.’’
She continued, “People don’t like men and women who are used as political pawns, especially those who are sworn to be apolitical. Those are the men and women who serve in uniform. There is a growing division. It will continue to grow wider.”
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Sullivan, getting personal, then added. “Just today, I heard it, too—I am not going to name them—Navy officers who are with this. I did 28 years. I did seven deployments. My family sacrificed. And I am sitting here being held up, when my country needs me, on an issue I have nothing to do with—and, by the way, Navy, submarine commanders, aircraft carrier commanders, pilots—these guys can go out and make huge money. So, I am hearing it. I am hearing it. We—not we—some of us are driving our senior Admirals and Generals out. They are saying: I am done with this. I can serve my country another way. I can make a ton of money in the private sector. My family deserves it.”
“That is happening,” Sullivan said, “That is happening. And it is wrong. It is wrong. We all know it is wrong. By the way, if we are here like a year from now and we are still dealing with this and we look back, we are like, holy cow, look at these great combat veterans with all this experience, and they left us; they left us because we forced them out. We are going to look back at this episode and just be stunned at what a national security suicide mission this became.”
Ernst pointed out, “We gave opportunity to nearly 60 of them this evening. These military families are in limbo. The families of 172 officers have been disrupted by these holds. Again, these are men and women. They have families who are being impacted. Their salaries are being impacted. Their retirements are being impacted. They had forced cancelations of coast-to-coast moves with homes that were sold. Many of them are now living in temporary housing and paying out of pocket for storage without any clarity about the length of time that they will be in this hold. Many of their children were dis-enrolled from current schools and – and — again, these are innocents—they are unable to re-enroll in school or enroll in a new school since they do not have a permanent address. And there were many spouses who had employment that was terminated. That is a kick in the seat.”
Before Ernst brought up two more nominations she said, “maybe we will see a result, again, bringing the nominations individually to the floor of the U.S. Senate to be voted on. I anticipated a man of his word would honor his word. We haven’t heard an explanation. But I will tell you, this was not time wasted tonight. I will do this all over again. I will do it all over again.”
Again, Tuberville objected.
Sullivan followed with three more, and Tuberville again prevented votes with his objections.
“My message to our Generals and Admirals who are being held up: Hang in there. Hang in there,” Sullivan said, “Some of us have your back. We have your back. We will be coming here every night to try and get you guys confirmed. I am hopeful that my colleague who left [the Senate floor], Senator Tuberville can work with us. I have been working with him for months. This is just kind of a frustration moment, right?”
In the 60 years that I have followed activities in the Senate, I found last week’s late evening session to be reflective of many of the unique governmental issues that currently face the country: In this case, a single Senator’s ability to hold up Senate action for political reasons, despite facts that show it impacts important national security issues at a time when the U.S. military is dealing with growing threats in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Efforts are underway this week on proposals that would circumvent Senate rules and permit a vote for en bloc consideration of the near 400 military nominations approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee that have been held up since the Tuberville hold began last February.
It deserves more serious public attention.
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