Senator Tommy Tuberville (R., Ala.) said Tuesday he will release his hold on military promotions, effectively ending his months-long effort to pressure the Pentagon into changing its abortion policy.
In February, Tuberville initially blocked the Senate votes from moving forward over the Pentagon’s new abortion-leave policy that gave troops access to abortion services while on duty. For the past nearly ten months, the Alabama Republican delayed the confirmations of more than 400 military nominees despite bipartisan pressure.
In a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, Tuberville reportedly agreed with Senators Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska) and Joni Ernst’s (R., Iowa) plan to release his holds on the military promotions for three-star officers and below, which make up the majority of the nominees. About eleven nominations for four-star generals and officers remain under the hold for the time being.
“I’m releasing everybody. I still got a hold on I think 11 four-star generals. Everybody else is completely released from me.” Tuberville told reporters Tuesday. “But other than that, it’s over.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) on lifting his blockade of nearly all military promotions:
“I’m releasing everybody. I still have a hold on, I think, 11 four-star generals … I think a few other people got holds on one or two or three people. But other than that, it’s over.” pic.twitter.com/leAihqtglu
— The Recount (@therecount) December 5, 2023
After announcing the news, the lawmaker added he was disappointed that the abortion policy wasn’t changed.
“We saw some success. We didn’t get as much out of it as we wanted,” Tuberville said. “The only opportunity you got to get people on the left up here to listen to you in the minority is to put a hold on something. I think we opened their eyes a little bit. We didn’t get the win that we wanted. We still got a bad policy.”
The decision to release the holds comes as Democrats were planning to hold a vote on changing the Senate rules in order to advance the military confirmations, which prompted the Senate GOP conference to convince Tuberville to change his strategy.
The policy, which was imposed last year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowed service members to receive reimbursements for traveling to abortion clinics.