WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the U.S. Senate moved to formally consider the nominations of the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chief of Staff of the Army, and Commandant of the Marine Corps. These officers, along with nearly 300 other senior military officers, have been blocked from their promotions by the senior Senator from Alabama for more than seven months.

Following today’s floor action, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued the following statement:

“Senate Democrats are looking for every opportunity to get our military officers promoted. Today, Leader Schumer outmaneuvered Senator Tuberville and again exposed his hold for the absurd, dishonest political stunt it is.

“I am glad we will get three key military posts filled, but hundreds more merit-based promotions are still frozen. We still have a lot more work to do to try and undo the damage Senator Tuberville is inflicting on military readiness and national security, and we need Senate Republicans to stop hiding from their duty to hold their colleague accountable.

“Nothing demonstrates that Senator Tuberville is the sole cause of this crisis better than his vote against cloture on General CQ Brown today. It’s really quite something that he was willing to file a cloture motion earlier today, and ended up voting against a cloture motion a few hours later. 

“To be clear, Senate Democrats have no problem with voting on the most senior military officers, as we have done in the past. We are disturbed, however, by Republicans’ interest in voting exclusively on a few select officers while hundreds of other officers and their families are punished. Democrats pursued every opportunity we could before taking this route, and I hope Republicans understand the terrible message they are sending to the force.

“Every single one of these military officers earned their promotions by faithfully executing their duties and exemplifying honor, courage, integrity, professionalism, and leadership. Every single one of them deserves swift Senate action, which Senator Tuberville continues to deny. 

“Today’s action shows that there is clear, overwhelming support to confirm these military leaders if Senator Tuberville will simply allow the Senate to conduct business as it has for generations under both Republican and Democratic administrations. 

“Instead of one-off attempts to maneuver around his own partisan blockade, Senator Tuberville should immediately allow consideration of all military promotions. I urge Senator Tuberville to drop his blanket hold and allow consideration on all of these military promotions in a swift, timely manner.”

Background:

For seven months, the senior senator from Alabama has blocked the promotions of all general and flag officers on the Senate floor, now totaling nearly 300 officers. The senator placed this hold on account of his disagreement with a Department of Defense (DOD) policy that provides legal leave and travel authorities for military servicemembers and their families who must travel to seek non-covered reproductive healthcare, including abortion care, in vitro fertilization (IVF) services, and others.

To provide transparency and factuality on these holds, the following documents are available for members of the press:

  1. Congressional Research Service (CRS) memorandum, “Floor Time Required to Process all Pending Military Nominations on the Executive Calendar”
    • This CRS memo assesses the amount of time it would take to individually process all military promotions pending on the Senate’s Executive Calendar, absent unanimous consent to skip or shorten time needed for some or all procedural steps, and provides a background discussion on how the Senate routinely processes military promotions by unanimous consent, the informal concepts of holds and blanket holds, and the procedural steps required to process nominations absent unanimous consent.
    • The memo concludes: “Incorporating these assumptions, it would take the Senate approximately 689 hours and 20 minutes of floor consideration, plus two days of session at the start of the process for cloture to mature on all 273 nominations. This total represents approximately 30 days and 17 hours to process all 273 military nominations, assuming the Senate worked 24 hours a day without break or interruption by other business. Alternatively, based on the above assumptions, if the Senate exclusively processed these nominations during eight-hour session days, it would take approximately 89 days to confirm all 273 nominees.”
    • A copy of the memorandum is available here.
  2. Senate Armed Services Committee majority staff memo, “Fact Sheet on Senate Holds on Military Promotions”
    • This fact sheet provides details on the specific military officers and positions being blocked, and provides fact checks for certain recurring claims regarding:
      1. The well-established legality and precedence of the DOD’s reproductive healthcare policies
      2. The specific damage the blanket hold is causing to military readiness and the military chain of command
      3. The costs this blanket hold is imposing on military families, spouses, and children
      4. The off-ramps and compromise opportunities that have been offered to the senator
  1. Despite Senator Tuberville’s fact-free claim that DOD is legislating an illegal policy, nothing could be further from the truth. The best proof is that not a single lawsuit has been filed that claims DOD’s policy is illegal. This is even more striking when one considers just how conservative Alabama, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court are.