White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) for holding up some 200 Pentagon nominees over a Defense Department abortion policy, calling the lawmaker “shameful” and accusing him of endangering national security.
Jean-Pierre said the senator’s blockade on the nominees was hurting military families and risking “our military readiness by depriving our armed forces of leadership.”
“What the senator is doing by holding these nominations, it’s a threat to our national security. Period. That’s what he’s doing,” Jean-Pierre told reporters at a Wednesday briefing. “These are important nominations that we need, that the American people need to keep our country safe.”
Tuberville began blocking confirmations to senior Pentagon posts in March to protest a Defense Department policy enacted last year that provides paid leave and reimburses travel costs for service members who travel to get an abortion.
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The GOP senator has blasted the policy as a violation of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits using federal taxpayer funds for abortion services.
Some Republican senators, including Joni Ernst (Iowa), have tried to get Tuberville to end the block, but Tuberville has rejected them, according to Punchbowl News. Ernst had offered a bill as part of the annual defense spending legislation to reverse the abortion policy, but Tuberville is only interested in ending his holdup if the Pentagon drops the policy or if the policy is codified via legislation.
Tuberville is blocking what is usually a speedy process to confirm Pentagon nominees.
If he persists, the Senate would have to consider each nominee in a longer process that eats up valuable floor time.
The backlog has grown over the past few months and could eventually affect the confirmation of the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff along with other senior positions in the Joint Chiefs.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in May blasted the holdup as endangering national security, calling the block “irresponsible.”
The White House on Wednesday did not say what conversations U.S. officials are having with Tuberville to end the block, but Jean-Pierre repeated it was “shameful that he’s doing this.”
“Senators,” Jean-Pierre said, “should not play politics with our military assistance, with our military readiness, and with our military family.”