Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday evening sought and received unanimous consent to confirm the promotions of 11 four-star generals that had been held up for months by Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) to protest the Pentagon’s abortion policies.
Schumer broke Tuberville’s blockade of more than 300 lower-ranking military promotions earlier this month, but the Alabama senator insisted at the time on holding up 11 of the highest-ranking officers so as not to capitulate completely to Democrats.
Tuberville demanded at the time that the promotions of the 11 four-star generals go through regular order on the Senate floor. He wanted senators to vote on procedural motions to end debate and then vote again to confirm the military promotions individually.
But Schumer kept the nominees off the floor until a few days before Christmas to ramp up pressure on Tuberville to approve them by unanimous consent. If he didn’t, senators might have been stuck churning through as many as 22 separate votes on nonpartisan military nominees.
Confirming the 11 remaining four-star officers was one of the last items of 2023, and the Senate is expected to adjourn for the year Wednesday.
Democrats had threatened to keep senators in session as necessary to get the work done, something that could have dragged into the weekend under a worst-case scenario.
“We’re prepared to stay for as long as it takes to get these officers in position to lead our brave soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and guardians,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) after the Tuesday lunch.
After negotiations with Schumer, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) and other colleagues Tuesday, Tuberville relented and allowed the Senate to approve the 11 high-ranking officers without a single roll call vote.
“These are the 11 four-star generals who were not included in the last approval of the 300-some-odd flag officers who we did approve last time. So, these are the 11 remaining generals that have been approved,” Schumer announced on the Senate floor. “That’s good news.”
Schumer’s motion speedily approved the promotions of Air Force Gen. Kevin Schneider, Air Force Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, Navy Admiral William Houston, Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh, Army Gen. James Mingus, Space Force Gen. Stephen Whiting, Navy Admiral James Kilby, Air Force General James Slife, Navy Admiral Stephen Koehler and Navy Rear Admiral Eric Anduze, among other nominees.
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the last Vietnam veteran still serving in the Senate, took to the floor after Schumer spoke to mark what he called the “end” of a “sad chapter” in Senate history, referring to Tuberville’s holds.
“I remember a certain number of tours in Southeast Asia and the Vietnam War. Some of those years, we were not home for Christmas, for the holidays. We were on the other side of the world,” he recalled. “I’m encouraged by what happened today.”
Tuberville told reporters earlier in the day that he was open to letting the four-star generals through the Senate before Christmas, even without votes.
“I’d work with them, I told them three weeks ago I’d work with them,” he said. “They don’t want to work with anybody.
“We could have done it three weeks ago,” he said.
Tuberville grumbled about Schumer not reaching out to him directly.
“Sooner or later you got to communicate: ‘Coach, what do you want here? Let’s get this done.’ They have no communication skills whatsoever. It’s their way or the highway,” he said.
Tuberville started holding up the nonpolitical military promotions in February to protest the Defense Department’s policy of reimbursing the travel expenses of service members who cross state lines to obtain abortions.
He argued it was a violation of the Hyde Amendment’s prohibition on spending taxpayer money on abortions.
But the Biden administration pointed to a Defense Department legal memo drafted in October 2022 finding the law “does not prohibit the use of funds to pay expenses, such as a per diem or travel expenses, that are incidental to the abortion.”
Tuberville finally released most of his holds earlier this month when it looked as though nine or more Senate Republican colleagues would vote for a standing order resolution to change Senate procedure to confirm more than 300 stalled nominees in one block to circumvent the Alabama senator.
He had come under mounting pressure from Republican colleagues such as Sens. Sullivan, Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.), who came to the Senate floor before Thanksgiving in an attempt to break his blockade.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also told colleagues and reporters that while he also opposed the Pentagon’s abortion policies, he did not support Tuberville’s tactic of holding up military promotions.
“I think holding these non-policymaking career military [officials] who can’t be involved in politics at all is a mistake, and we continue to work on that, and I hope at some point we can get it clear,” McConnell told reporters in September.
Al Weaver contributed.