Dems weigh batch votes to bypass Tuberville for remaining nominees

WASHINGTON ― Democrats are deliberating ways to confirm the hundreds of remaining military nominees held up by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. They hope to capitalize on this week’s momentum to confirm the nearly 300 other nominees in the relatively near future after the Senate confirmed three joint chiefs this week.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said that a likely option Democrats are considering to break the Tuberville logjam would be to confirm the roughly 300 other general and flag officers on the floor in large block packages, allowing the confirmations to proceed without monopolizing precious Senate floor time.

Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Defense News he expects more floor votes on military nominees after the chamber completes work on the appropriations legislation and stopgap funding bill, which Congress must pass by the end of the month to avoid a government shutdown .

“I think you’re going to see some big blocks that we needed to break the ice, but we’re going to get them all through,” Kaine said. “We haven’t taken anything off the table, and we’re going to continue to increase the pressure.”

There are military officials now filling the roughly 300 vacancies in an acting capacity. But the holds have also created uncertainty for troops down the ranks trying to plan for their futures, forced senior military officials to perform two jobs at once , and raised questions about what authorities acting officers do and don’t have absent Senate confirmation.

While Democrats would prefer Tuberville simply lift his holds to once again allow the Senate to quickly confirm the nominees by unanimous consent, confirming the hundreds of remaining nominees in large block votes could function as a backup plan to break the logjam.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., told reporters Thursday that “nothing’s on the table, nothing’s off the table.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., this week held a series of votes to confirm Gen. CQ Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by an 83-11 vote, Gen. Randy George as Army chief of staff in a 96-1 vote, and Gen. Eric Smith as Marine Corps commandant with a 96-0 vote.

Tuberville was one of the senators to vote against Brown as Joint Chiefs chairman.

“I just didn’t want to vote for him,” Tuberville told Defense News on Thursday.

Pushed for clarification by Defense News, Tuberville responded, “I like Gen. Brown,” but noted his “no” vote was due to the broader situation around the Pentagon’s abortion leave policy . This policy, which provides paid leave time for troops to receive abortions if they live in states where it’s illegal, is what prompted Tuberville to instate his hold on all military nominees in February.

Tuberville did vote to confirm George and Smith even though the abortion policy remains in place.

If Democrats proceed with block votes on the remaining nominees, the Senate may still hold stand-alone votes on Adm. Lisa Franchetti , the nominee for chief of naval operations, and Gen. David Allvin to serve as Air Force chief of staff. They both had their confirmation hearings last week.

Schumer had initially declined to hold floor votes on the top military nominees for months while hundreds of other officers remained logjammed, but reversed course after Tuberville planned to force a vote on Smith . Until Tuberville’s blockade, the Senate had historically confirmed these nominees in a rapid floor procedure called unanimous consent.

The series of confirmation votes for three nominees took two days, and that’s after Tuberville agreed to speed up some procedural hurdles so the Senate did not have to remain in session to vote through the weekend.

A recent Congressional Research Service report found it would take roughly 700 hours of floor time — almost 90 days — to confirm 301 outstanding nominees if the Senate did nothing else and neglected its other duties, like funding the government.

The Senate expects to receive roughly 300 more military nominations by the end of the year, approximately doubling that timeline.

In a floor speech on Wednesday, Schumer left the door open to changing Senate procedures to allow for the confirmation of a batch of military nominees at once.

“Sen. Tuberville’s unprecedented disrespect of the men and women who lead our military has, unsurprisingly, caused many of our colleagues to discuss the ways to change the way we process military nominations,” Schumer said. “They recognize that the Senate process is being abused and that Sen. Tuberville’s reckless actions are harming hundreds of military families.”

But a rules change may run into resistance from Republicans, meaning Democrats would be able to afford few — if any — defections to enact such a change.

“I do not think we need a rules change,” Sen. Join Ernst, R-Iowa, told Defense News.

Bryant Harris is the Congress reporter for Defense News. He has covered U.S. foreign policy, national security, international affairs and politics in Washington since 2014. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera English and IPS News.

华盛顿——民主党人正在商讨如何确认阿拉巴马州共和党参议员汤米·图伯维尔阻挠的数百名剩余的军事提名人选。他们希望利用本周的势头，在参议院本周确认三名参谋长联席会议成员后，在相对较短的时间内确认其他近300名提名人选。

弗吉尼亚州民主党参议员蒂姆·凯恩表示，民主党人正在考虑的一个可能打破图伯维尔僵局的方案是，将其他大约 300 名将军和高级军官的任命以大批量的方式提交参议院确认，这样就可以在不占用宝贵的参议院议事时间的情况下进行确认。

参议院军事委员会成员凯恩告诉《防务新闻》，他预计在参议院完成拨款法案和临时拨款法案的工作后，将对军事提名人进行更多投票。国会必须在月底前通过这些法案，以避免政府停摆。

“我认为你们会看到一些我们用来破冰的大阻碍，但我们会克服所有困难，”凯恩说。“我们没有排除任何可能性，我们会继续加大压力。”

目前，约有300个空缺职位由军方官员以代理身份填补。但这些任命搁置也给基层官兵规划未来带来了不确定性，迫使高级军官身兼两职，并引发了人们对代理军官在未经参议院确认的情况下究竟拥有哪些权力的质疑。

虽然民主党人更希望塔伯维尔直接解除他的阻挠，让参议院再次以一致同意的方式迅速确认提名人选，但以大选投票确认剩余的数百名提名人选可以作为打破僵局的备用方案。

参议院军事委员会主席杰克·里德博士周四告诉记者，“一切皆有可能，一切皆有可能”。

本周，参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默（纽约州）举行了一系列投票，以 83 比 11 的投票结果确认 CQ 布朗将军担任参谋长联席会议主席，以 96 比 1 的投票结果确认兰迪·乔治将军担任陆军参谋长，以 96 比 0 的投票结果确认埃里克·史密斯将军担任海军陆战队司令。

图伯维尔是投票反对布朗担任参谋长联席会议主席的参议员之一。

“我就是不想投票给他，”塔伯维尔周四告诉《防务新闻》。

在《防务新闻》的追问下，塔伯维尔回应说：“我喜欢布朗将军”，但他指出，他投反对票是出于对五角大楼堕胎假政策的更广泛考量。这项政策允许居住在堕胎非法州的军人带薪休假进行堕胎手术，正是这项政策促使塔伯维尔在二月份暂停了所有军事提名人选的审批。

尽管堕胎政策仍然有效，但塔伯维尔还是投票确认了乔治和史密斯的任命。

如果民主党人继续对剩余的提名人进行集体投票，参议院仍可能对海军作战部长提名人丽莎·弗兰切蒂海军上将和空军参谋长提名人戴维·奥尔文将军进行单独投票。他们两人上周都已举行了确认听证会。

舒默最初拒绝就最高军事提名人选进行全体投票，导致数百名其他军官的提名陷入僵局长达数月之久，但在塔伯维尔计划强行就史密斯的提名进行投票后，他改变了主意。在图伯维尔阻挠之前，参议院历来都是通过一种名为“一致同意”的快速程序来确认这些提名人选。

对三名提名人的一系列确认投票用了两天时间，这还是在图伯维尔同意加快一些程序性障碍之后，这样参议院就不必在周末继续开会进行投票。

国会研究服务处最近的一份报告发现，如果参议院不做任何其他事情，并且忽视其其他职责（例如为政府拨款），那么确认 301 名待定提名人将需要大约 700 小时的议事时间——近 90 天。

参议院预计到今年年底将收到大约 300 项军事提名，使时间安排大约翻一番。

舒默周三在参议院发表讲话时，表示不排除改变参议院程序，以便一次性确认一批军事提名人选的可能性。

舒默表示：“图伯维尔参议员对领导我们军队的男女军人前所未有的不尊重，不出所料地引发了许多同僚讨论如何改变我们处理军事提名的方式。他们意识到参议院的程序正在被滥用，图伯维尔参议员的鲁莽行为正在伤害数百个军人家庭。”

但规则的改变可能会遭到共和党人的抵制，这意味着民主党人即使要推行这样的改变，也几乎不会有任何党员倒戈。

“我认为我们不需要改变规则，”爱荷华州共和党参议员乔恩·恩斯特告诉《防务新闻》。

布莱恩特·哈里斯是《防务新闻》的国会记者。自2014年以来，他一直在华盛顿报道美国外交政策、国家安全、国际事务和政治。他还曾为《外交政策》、《Al-Monitor》、《半岛电视台英语频道》和IPS新闻撰稿。