In a press briefing, GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville said he was on board with a plan to drop all nominations who have three-stars and under.
“I am not going to hold the promotions of these people any longer,” Tuberville said.
That leaves just 10 military officers under his hold, all of whom are on the four-star level. The Senate swiftly cleared 425 military promotions not long after Tuberville made the announcement.
Tuberville expressed no regrets about the monthslong holds but admitted he failed to get the “win that we wanted.”
The developments on Tuesday ended a 10-month saga in the Senate, as Tuberville’s tactic to protest a Defense Department abortion policy drew intense scrutiny.
Democrats had hounded Tuberville from the beginning, but over time Republicans also grew frustrated as the holds swelled to hundreds of military nominations.
But Tuberville dug in, even as the Pentagon and the White House slammed him for endangering national security. The Defense Department refused to drop the abortion policy, which the senator demanded in return for the end to his holds.
President Biden said in a statement that Tuberville “needlessly hurt hundreds of servicemembers and military families and threatened our national security – all to push a partisan agenda.”
“In the end, this was all pointless,” Biden said. “I hope no one forgets what he did.”
Because votes consume a lot of time, nominees are usually approved quickly in a voice vote, but Tuberville’s hold prevented that. The Senate did approve some of the highest-ranking nominees without the voice vote.
In recent weeks, Senate Democrats were planning to tweak the rules to advance the hundreds of nominees and a related vote was coming up this month.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he hopes the chapter is over now that Tuberville dropped most of the holds.
“I hope no one does this again,” Schumer told the Senate.
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