Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Monday that the Senate Rules Committee will mark up a resolution Tuesday to confirm more than 350 nonpolitical military promotions at once, circumventing a hold that Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) has had in place for nine months to protest the Pentagon’s abortion policy.
The Democratic leader said once the Rules Committee approves the measure, he will bring it to the Senate floor for a vote “as soon as possible.”
“I know some Republicans have been trying to work with Sen. Tuberville over the past week to find some last-ditch solution but he seems to remain ironclad in his stubbornness. So tomorrow the Senate Rules Committee, led by Sen. [Amy] Klobuchar [D-Minn.], will mark up a resolution allowing the Senate to quickly confirm the promotions currently blocked by Tuberville,” Schumer told colleagues.
He thanked Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.) for working on the resolution and expressed hope that it will pick up the nine Republican votes needed to pass the Senate.
“If Sen. Tuberville continues his blanket holds on military nominations, if he won’t even listen to members of his own side of the aisle, I will bring Sen. Reed’s resolution to the floor for a vote as soon as possible. That way, we can end Sen. Tuberville’s farce and quickly confirm the over 350 military promotions,” Schumer said.
“We can finally move them to their rightful promotions,” he said.
It remains an open question, however, whether Schumer will get enough Republican support for the standing order resolution, which would change Senate procedure for confirming nonpolitical military promotions for the rest of the 118th Congress.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) last week called on Senate GOP leaders to support Tuberville and warned it would be a “mistake” to support the Democratic resolution to allow more than 300 promotions to be confirmed in one batch.
The standing order resolution, if passed, would not apply to top-level commanders such as members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or candidates nominated to lead a combatant command.