Senate schedules hearing on resolution to end Tuberville’s military holds

Senate schedules hearing on resolution to end Tuberville’s military holds

The Senate Rules Committee on Monday scheduled a hearing for next week to consider a resolution that would end Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s, R-Ala., months-long holds on military nominations.

The committee set a Nov. 14 meeting on the resolution, which would allow all the nominations to move forward at the same time.

Since February, Tuberville has blocked the promotions in protest of Defense Department policies that reimburse service members’ travel expenses for abortions if they are stationed in a state where the procedure is illegal.

Democrats had been working on a way to circumvent the holds.

Tuberville had not faced resistance on his tactic from Republicans until last week, when a group of GOP senators attempted to advance the nominations.

But Tuberville objected and the promotions continued to be held up.

An impasse on the holds was temporarily broken in September to approve several high-ranking military officials, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff C.Q. Brown. The holds were also temporarily sidestepped on Friday to confirm three other top officials, including Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.