CV NEWS FEED // Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, will finally hold a vote on the promotions of three military officers that have been delayed by the months-long campaign of Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-AL, to end abortion in the military.
“I have just filed cloture on the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, and the Army Chief of Staff,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “These men should have already been confirmed. They should already be serving in their new positions.”
“The Senate should not have to go through procedural hoops just to please one brazen and misguided senator,” Schumer said, referring to Tuberville:
But this is where we are. In the end, the Senate will overwhelmingly vote to overwhelm Senator Tuberville’s blockade of these three nominees by voting for cloture. Then, the Senate will overwhelmingly vote to confirm them. And these three honorable men will finally be able to assume their positions.
“And the abortion policy that Senator Tuberville abhors will remain in place,” Schumer added, raising his voice. “Senator Tuberville will have accomplished nothing.”
Cloture is a parliamentary procedure used in Congress and in legislatures around the world to end a debate and move toward a vote.
Despite Schumer’s comments, neither he nor the Senate has any control over the Department of Defense’s taxpayer-funded abortion policy.
As State Freedom Caucus Network Communications Director Greg Price explained, all Tuberville really did was block the “Senate’s blanket vote to confirm hundreds of military appointments at once over the Pentagon funding abortion travel.”
Price also noted that Schumer could have invoked cloture any time “he wanted over the last few months.”
“Democrats care more about forcing you to fund the killing of unborn babies than military readiness,” he added.
Tuberville responded to Schumer’s comments.
“Democrats can’t have it both ways,” he said. “Either they can confirm these nominees through regular order, or they can stop complaining about acting officials.”
“Democrats say this is a large backload of nominees,” Tuberville continued. “They say it will take a long time. Well, I agree it’s been a big backlog. But again, Chuck Schumer allowing the backlog to build up over six months is his fault.”
“We could’ve been confirming one or two [nominees] a week for the last 200 days. It would’ve taken us just four hours of voting each week,” Tuberville continued. “But we didn’t do it. We took another angle of just sitting back and watching. Chuck Schumer refused again, again, and again.”
“We don’t have a lack of leadership in the military,” he added. “We have a lack of leadership right here in the United States Senate.”
The senator also let the majority leader know that his hold is still in place.
“The hold will remain in place as long as the Pentagon’s illegal abortion policy remains in place,” he stated. “If the Pentagon lifts the policy, then I will lift my hold. It’s as easy as that.”
“That’s been my position since the very beginning,” Tuberville said. “I’m not afraid to vote on these nominees or on all of these nominees.”
Last week, the pro-life senator called Schumer “all talk” for criticizing his holds but not invoking cloture on a single military nominee.
“He is bragging about how many judges he has confirmed while refusing to bring a single military nomination to the floor,” Tuberville said at the time. “If he was really concerned about readiness, he would call a vote today.”
CatholicVote Director of Government Affairs Tom McClusky said Wednesday that Schumer’s move to file cloture on three military nominees proved Tuberville had been right to “call his bluff.” “And Tuberville is right not to take the move as some kind of victory or threat to his principled stand,” McClusky added. “Schumer caved, and here’s hoping the Pentagon soon will too.”
