CV NEWS FEED // After nearly 10 months, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-AL, announced Tuesday afternoon that he will release most of his holds on over 400 military promotions.
He began the holds back in February in protest against the Department of Defense’s (DoD) policy of using taxpayer funds to pay for service members’ abortions.
“I’m not going to hold the promotions of these people any longer,” Tuberville said Tuesday. “We fought hard. We did the right thing for the unborn and for our military, fighting back against executive overreach and an abortion policy.”
According to The Military Times, “Tuberville said Tuesday he was forced to block the promotions to highlight ‘this bad Pentagon policy’ and to ‘stand up for the taxpayers of this country.’ But he also said his lengthy protest had achieved all it could at this point.”
The senator added that he had “no regrets.”
“We saw some success, but we didn’t get as much out of this as we wanted,” the pro-life lawmaker and former college football coach remarked.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Tuberville has dropped holds on all but 11 pending promotions. He will reportedly still request a floor vote for this group, which consists entirely of “four-star generals and admirals.”
“With the signoff for all but the nominated four-stars, the Senate is now likely to approve those 11 officers without the process becoming too time consuming,” the WSJ elaborated.
“We’re proud of the stand that [Tuberville] took on behalf of the preborn,” Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Every day he stood firm was a message sent to Washington that the lives of America’s preborn are worth defending, even if Joe Biden and his Pentagon don’t think so. THANK YOU, SENATOR!”
CatholicVote Director of Governmental Affairs Tom McClusky praised Tuberville’s “heroic” monthslong faceoff with the Pentagon. “Sen. Tuberville has set a new Senate standard for fighting for the rule of law and the lives of the unborn,” McClusky said:
Unfortunately, Joe Biden and the majority of Senate Republicans do not seem to care for either. Coach is a hero for continuing this fight. To his colleagues, I say: if you are actually pro-life, fight like you mean it.
A few of Tuberville’s Republican colleagues publicly supported his holds, including Sens. Mike Lee, R-UT, and J.D. Vance, R-OH.
However, at least five Senate Republicans took significant action to derail their fellow Republican’s campaign against taxpayer-funded abortion. Outspoken members of this group included Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-AK, and Joni Ernst, R-IA.
Both Sullivan and Ernst consider themselves to be pro-life. In addition, Sullivan is a self-professed Catholic.
During his holds, Tuberville repeatedly pointed out that his actions had no effect on military readiness. In addition, he maintained that the Senate could still hold votes on the promotions, albeit via regular floor-voting and not en masse.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, did in fact hold successful floor votes on military promotions on a few occasions while Tuberville’s holds were still ongoing.
