Politics
We live in a political era when “show” is more important than “go”. Today’s case in point, is the “principled” stand that Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville is taking in the US Senate. Tuberville is against abortions, all abortions. And since he is unable to pass any legislation to end abortion, he’s decided to take a “principled stand”. He’s against abortions in the US military.
The US military has “evolved” from the days of an all-male force. Over seventeen percent of the active military today; more than 230,000 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines; are women. As part of the military, they are all guaranteed health care. With the Dobbs Supreme Court decision, different states have differing laws regarding abortion. Some states completely ban it, others allow some or most abortion procedures. The US military stations personnel all over the country. The Defense Department recognizes that the women under its command need full access to health care. It provides time off and travel expenses for their personnel who need abortion-care to go to states where they can access it.
Coach Tuberville doesn’t like that. He’s demanding that the Defense Department require its personnel to “abide” by the health laws of the state they are stationed in. So a Marine in California would be able to access abortion care, while an Airman in Texas would not. And that’s the “rub” between the Coach and the DoD.
Defense Secretary (and Four Star General) Lloyd Austin understands the morale issue that would be created by this disparity. He’s unwilling to “enforce” Tuberville’s demands. And since he won’t, the former football Coach from Auburn found a way to “express” his displeasure. He won’t allow any promotions of general officers through the United States Senate.
Unanimous Consent
A little process and procedure: every general officer promotion has to be approved by the US Senate as part of their “advise and consent” power. Traditionally, those promotions are passed by unanimous consent in the Senate. Usually, no Senator wants to be the “one voice” stopping the improved effectiveness of our Armed Forces. The unanimous consent process allows the Senate to bypass the “regular order”, where each promotion would have to come to the “floor” for debate, discussion and vote.
Maybe that doesn’t seem like such a big deal. But when there are three hundred and seventy-eight promotions in line, it represents hundreds of hours of debate and discussion. If the Senate were to pass those in “regular order”, with required waiting times between motion, debate, and vote – they wouldn’t get anything else done for the rest of the year.
So Tuberville’s single “Nay” to unanimous consent, has prevented all of the general officers promotions for the past ten months.
Both Democratic Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Republican Minority Leader McConnell called on Tuberville to end his blockade. And while the Senate has moved a few single officers, including the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the Chief of Naval Operations; the vast majority of promotions are on hold.
And it’s not just the additional stars (and pay increase). Command tours of duty are ending, and replacements cannot take over. Temporary commands are being held by “deputies”, while the replacements are literally sitting, waiting for promotion and orders to report to their new stations. Everything from Naval carrier squadrons to regional Army commands are impacted.
The Fix
To outsiders, the easy “fix” is simply to ignore Tuberville, and pass the promotions ninety-nine to one. But doing so strikes at the very heart of Senate tradition; the power of the filibuster. Each Senator has the ability to stop legislation by “holding the floor” and requiring sixty Senators to vote for “cloture”, that is, vote to take away the floor from that individual Senator. The process of cloture is intentionally difficult and time-consuming. And that’s the problem: Coach Tuberville would require cloture for every, single, promotion, if he continues to refuses to agree to unanimous consent.
The power to filibuster is “near and dear” to every Senator. It’s what makes the Senate different from the House, where the majority has almost unfettered power to drive their agenda. That’s what we see now in the House, where Democrats are narrowly the minority (five votes) but have little to say about process, procedure, or substance; other than be a vocal opponent. But any single Senator, of either Party, can make their very public point by bringing the Senate, and therefore the Congress, to a standstill with their lone voice.
Hill to Die On
Tuberville isn’t budging, even after the opprobrium dumped on him this week from his own fellow Republican Senators. This is the issue the Coach is going to make, the “hill he’s willing to die on”. The Department of Defense, at the behest of the Biden White House, isn’t moving either. And as much as Senators want to pass military promotions, few are willing to give up the filibuster to do so. That’s a matter of what they consider “really” important. If the filibuster is short-circuited for Tuberville, it could be short-circuited for them.
So our entire military structure waits, on standby, with temporary deputies running high commands, and the next class of General officers waiting on the sidelines: all to please Coach Tommy. And no one can do anything about it.
