The holds blocking military promotions by Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville are having a negative impact on the military, according to the country’s top general.

Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, discussed his view of the holds in an interview published Friday by The Washington Post. Tuberville, of course, put a hold on promotions in February in objection to a new Pentagon policy providing paid leave and travel expenses for military personnel to receive abortions.

Milley’s full response when asked about Tuberville and the holds:

“I don’t want to enter into the whole discussion of abortion and the culture war,” Milley told The Post. “I’m staying out of all that.

“So now you’re up to, probably, I don’t know somewhere between three [thousand] and 4,000 people, humans, children, spouses, the officers themselves that are being impacted by this in a negative way — increased uncertainty, can’t go to school, can’t change jobs, can’t get settled.

“About a third of our assignments change pretty much every year. So you’re looking at about a third of the organizations in the U.S. military globally, are without predictable, consistent leadership. And the guy who’s in the job right now would either have to extend or defer retirement or defer the next assignment and there’s a real ripple effect to all of this. So there is a real readiness impact to all of this and that concerns me. And the sooner we can get to a resolution, I think the better.”

In a statement Friday to AL.com, Tuberville Communications Director Steven Stafford said, “Contrary to false reporting, no jobs are going unfilled. All of these jobs are being done in our military of nearly 2 million people.”

Tuberville has repeatedly said he does not believe that military readiness is affected by the holds and that acting commanders can perform necessary duties without Senate-confirmed promotions. Democrats in the Senate disagree while top Senate Republicans Mitch McConnell and John Thune have also spoken against the military holds.

Tuberville has said he will not budge on the holds unless the policy is rescinded or Congress votes its approval of the policy. Stafford told AL.com in July that the issue is “unauthorized use of taxpayer dollars to facilitate elective abortions. No one is disputing servicemembers’ ability to take leave and get an elective abortion in another state (access). What is at dispute is taxpayer funding to facilitate this.”

The holds go to the top of the military. Milley is retiring next month and the Senate has not held a vote to confirm his replacement. President Joe Biden has nominated Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. to be the next chair of the Joint Chiefs.

About 300 promotions are on hold at this point and that number is expected to approach 600 by the end of the year. The Senate has traditionally approved military promotions in a quick unanimous consent action but Tuberville has invoked his authority as a senator to block that mechanism.

Instead, Tuberville has said that the Senate can hold confirmation votes on each promotion to bypass his holds. Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island and chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Associated Press in July that voting on individual promotions would take about three months with the Senate working eight hours a day.

Updated today, Aug. 18, 2023, at 10:43 a.m. with comment from Tuberville spokesman.