Republicans, fed up with Tuberville, plot ways to bust his military blockade

Republicans have had it with Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s nine-month blockade of military promotions. And after publicly putting pressure on the Alabama Republican to lift his hold on hundreds of officers, GOP senators are plotting new ways to break the impasse.

During a special meeting planned for next week, some will ask Tuberville to focus his obstruction on only the Pentagon’s civilian nominees and not uniformed officers who have nothing to do with the policy he’s protesting. Others want to shift the fight to the courts to challenge the policy at the center of the hold, which reimburses troops who have to travel to obtain abortions and other reproductive services.

Democrats, meanwhile, are devising their own ways to get around the blockade, and are hoping the GOP frustration they see will push Republicans to support their idea.

The deadlock reached a dramatic and very public phase when a cadre of GOP senators confronted Tuberville on the Senate floor Wednesday night, blaming the Alabama lawmaker’s blanket hold for weakening the military at a precarious moment for the world.

The four-hour-plus event, which forced Tuberville to object to votes on 61 nominees, marked a pivotal moment for Republicans as their private frustrations with the freshman lawmaker spilled over onto live TV for all to see.

"I think what it says about where things are is Tommy's losing support,” Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said of the Republican-on-Republican fight. “And you're seeing the frustration build up because the consequences are building up."

And while the attempt was doomed — those Republicans knew Tuberville wouldn’t budge — it’s also made some Senate Democrats optimistic that enough GOP members will join their push to confirm most of the promotions in one big bloc.

While it’s not yet clear whether Republicans are ready to go beyond speeches and take action to defang Tuberville’s hold, which is rooted in opposition to abortion policies they oppose, it was a stunning moment for a chamber that rarely sees senators go after members of their own party.

“My expectation is he’ll be invited to this meeting and he’ll welcome the opportunity to seriously work together on a new strategy, and at the same time maintain our national security at this difficult time,” said Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who was part of the group that confronted Tuberville on Wednesday. “I think almost all of us agree with what Sen. Tuberville’s trying to accomplish — certainly I do — but I think it’s time to develop a new and smarter strategy.”

One hope is to redirect his hold away from the generals and admirals awaiting promotion and toward the civilians who make policy.

If Tuberville agrees to that shift in strategy, it’s bad news for Derek Chollet, the nominee to be DOD’s next policy chief and potentially other civilian nominees in the confirmation pipeline. But the senator would likely have less leverage by jamming up civilian picks who already need to clear numerous procedural hurdles to be confirmed.

The Democrats, meanwhile, have their own plan. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday announced he’ll push for a vote on Armed Services Chair Jack Reed’s (D-R.I.) resolution to allow military promotions to be confirmed in packages, adding pressure on Republicans to work with them or come up with their own solution.

Schumer intends to move the resolution — which Reed and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) helped devise to get around Tuberville — after it clears the Senate Rules Committee. But Democrats need at least nine Republicans to join them to meet the 60-vote threshold to advance the measure on the Senate floor.

Senate procedures have been a partisan faultline for a decade as Democrats and Republicans traded party-line “nuclear option” changes to the rules. And there’s strong opposition among Republicans to what they see as tampering with the chamber’s rules, especially if it erodes the ability of a single senator to pump the brakes on a nominee or a piece of legislation.

“Senators have a right to place a hold on a nominee or on a bill, and I’m not going to vote to do anything to undermine it — and I would urge my colleagues not to do anything to undermine it, because it is a double-edged sword,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). “Ninety-nine percent of holds get worked out.”

But the blockage of hundreds of officers hasn’t abated since Tuberville got it started in February.

As they look to get Republicans on board, advocates underscored that the proposal is a "standing order” that would permit the bundling of most military nominees just for the remainder of the Congress through next year — not a permanent change to Senate rules.

They also contend the tweak would actually preserve senators’ prerogative to hold or filibuster nominees. Under the proposal, they would be holding up blocs, not individuals.

“That still allows someone to use their time to delay that vote, to oppose everyone in a batch if they want, but it would not require hundreds and hundreds of individual floor debates and votes, which is what Sen. Tuberville is trying to do,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said.

The proposal doesn’t apply to the most senior military nominees — such as members of the Joint Chiefs or other four-star commanders — who would still need to be voted on individually.

Tuberville rejected the Schumer-backed resolution this week.

“They'd rather blow up the Senate than go with the Constitution,” he said of the resolution’s backers, adding that it would be “suicide” for Republicans to join them. “Last time I looked, Republicans are pro-life.”

No Republicans have publicly endorsed the Reed-Sinema resolution. But after the five GOP senators took on Tuberville this week, some senators on both sides think the dam might be about to break.

"I'm quite certain there already are nine and I think there could be many, many more,” said Cramer, who is undecided but wants to avoid a rule change. “Tommy could have maybe avoided that [Wednesday] night by allowing those votes to go through.”

Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, who led Wednesday’s floor fight and called it “a demonstration of frustration” after he’d tried to work with Tuberville for nine months, said he hopes the Alabama senator would see the light now. He said he wants a Republican solution over the Democrats’ resolution.

“Sometimes you have kind of a rough evening and it can reorient your thinking — but I’m not done,” Sullivan said. “I still think there are opportunities for good faith negotiations, absolutely.”

Another of the senators who confronted Tuberville, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), said she sees the Reed-Sinema resolution as a last resort, but said, “I would consider it because we’re reaching a point of desperation.” She said she and Sullivan will return to the floor next week for a repeat of their pressure tactics, with new nominees.

“If Dan and I need to go all night to get everyone confirmed, we will do that. But Senator Tuberville has to relent and figure out a way to hold the DOD accountable for the policy — and that would be the civilian nominee,” Ernst said. “It’s not just Dan and I. Other members of the conference as well are trying to explore other options and figure out any other off-ramps there might be.”

Another emerging tactic among Republicans is to go to court to invalidate the Pentagon policy.

Many Republicans contend the Pentagon’s new rules effectively violate laws that prohibit taxpayer funding for most abortions. Ernst said she’s pushed for anti-abortion groups to challenge the Pentagon policy in court — and find a person with standing to do so.

"We feel it's illegal. They feel it's illegal, then do something about it,” she said. “We need them to engage in this issue. And not just by saying these nominees are part of the problem. They're not."

The Justice Department, however, has sided with the Pentagon on the policy. An October 2022 opinion issued by the Office of Legal Counsel ruled the Pentagon can lawfully spend money for military personnel to travel to obtain abortions.

Other Senate Republicans are amping up the pressure on their leadership to resolve the impasse. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, instead of faulting either side in the fight, ripped Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — who he’s battling on other issues — for not mediating effectively.

“I cannot believe Republican leadership cannot get this solved. You have Republicans fighting each other on the floor. It’s really something to see,” Hawley said. “I mean, what’s Mitch McConnell doing here? I just think it’s embarrassing that he allows this to go forward on the floor.”

Republicans have pushed for votes on at least some top-level nominees. Sullivan and Tuberville forced the hand of Schumer, who on Thursday held votes on the top officers for the Navy and Air Force along with the No. 2 Marine officer.

It marks the first time since July the entire Joint Chiefs has been Senate-confirmed. But there are still 364 nominees in limbo.

Rules Committee Chair Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said her panel could be ready as soon as next week to vote on the resolution, but Reed was still working on getting GOP support.

In the trenches and trying to secure Republican support, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) was not yet ready to claim a momentum shift in the Democrats’ favor.

“I've spoken to three new Republican colleagues who I haven't spoken with about this before, and of the three, there was an opening with one of them,” he said.

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.