WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats will not block a vote on the Defense Department’s new abortion policy to end Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold on military promotions.
Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama, has been holding up promotions for high-level military officers for months in opposition to a Defense Department policy that pays for travel expenses for service members who need to leave the state for abortions. He has said he would end the lockout, which now affects more than 250 military officers, if the policy is voted on.
Asked by NBC News Wednesday if he would give Tuberville an independent vote affirming the Pentagon’s abortion policy, Schumer, DN.Y., said Democrats would not block it. “If she wants to have a yes vote, we won’t object. Tuberville said she wanted a vote, we’ll see what happens,” Schumer said.
But Schumer assigned Senate Republicans the responsibility of finding a way forward, blaming them for failing to “stop” Tuberville. “The bottom line is that it depends on the Republican leadership,” Schumer said. “This is a problem that they have in their group, that they have with the country. They are risking our security and it is up to them to fix it.”
Schumer pointed out that both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip John Thune have “strongly disagreed” with Tuberville’s control over promotions, adding that “it is their responsibility to make it stop.”
Informed of Schumer’s offer to allow a yes vote on the policy on Wednesday, Tuberville seemed surprised. “Oh really?” he asked him. “Well, I’ll have to talk to him.”
“I mean that’s what I’ve been asking for all along: an independent vote,” Tuberville said. “Just get it on the ground and don’t let the Pentagon legislate. That’s all I want.”
Tuberville said he has not discussed abortion policy with Schumer. “I’ve never talked to him in two and a half years,” she said.
Earlier Wednesday, McConnell told reporters that he would be “reluctant” to try to end Tuberville’s hold by changing the Senate hold process. “I’m reluctant to go down that path,” the Kentucky Republican said. “We have holdups on both sides. What usually happens is you figure it out, and I think that’s where we should stay.”
Control of Tuberville has drawn further criticism, including from some Republicans who also oppose the Defense Department’s abortion policy. “We have to end the problem of delaying promotions,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C, said last week. “You don’t always get your way here. You can vote, but we lost an election.”
President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have criticized Tuberville’s tactics, arguing that he is jeopardizing the readiness of the military. Austin and Tuberville have spoken on the phone about the holds twice this month without reaching a resolution.
kate santaliz contributed.
