HELSINKI (AP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday it was “irresponsible” for a Republican senator from Alabama to block the confirmation of military officers to protest a Department of Defense policy that pays for travel when a serviceman must be out of state to get an abortion or reproductive care.
“He’s jeopardizing the security of the United States by what he’s doing,” Biden said of Sen. Tommy Tuberville. “It’s just totally irresponsible in my opinion.”
More than 260 nominations are blocked by Tuberville, including Biden’s pick for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, America’s top military officer. The United States Marine Corps is currently without a confirmed leader for the first time in a century due to the lockdown. It also affects dozens of one-, two-, and three-star officers who are assigned to new base commands.
“I would be willing to talk to him if I thought there was any possibility of changing his ridiculous position,” Biden said during a press conference with the Finnish president. Biden traveled to Finland to show his support for the new NATO member, following the NATO summit in Lithuania this week.
“The idea that we’re injecting into fundamental foreign policy decisions what, in effect, is national social debate on social issues is bizarre,” Biden said.
The lockdown also affects candidates’ families, who typically move over the summer to their new military communities so school-age children can settle in before the fall.
And that extends to hundreds of younger service members who don’t need Senate confirmation but are still affected by the grip because they’re assigned to serve as staff or aides to generals who move. These helpers also move their families. So they’re basically stuck too.
A proposal last month to hold a Senate debate on the Pentagon’s abortion policies as part of the annual defense bill negotiations was seen by some senators as the best prospect for Tuberville to lift those deadlocks, but he opposed it.
The Alabama senator’s action flies in the face of decades of precedent in which swaths of military officers and promotions are approved by voice vote and without objection. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, DR.I., said if the Senate were to vote individually on the 260 nominations, it would take 27 days with the Senate working “around the clock” or 84 days if the Senate worked eight. hours per day.
Tuberville said he wants Democrats to fix the problem by introducing abortion policy legislation and then holding a vote on it. Tuberville does not have its own bill to change the policy.
“I leave it up to them,” Tuberville said Wednesday.
But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Republican leaders, most of whom have criticized the Tuberville grabs, should convince the senator to change his mind.
Biden said fellow GOP senators from Tuberville should work to stop his blocking.
“I’m convinced the mainstream Republican party doesn’t support what they’re doing, but they need to stand up and be counted. That’s how it ends,” Biden said.
___
Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report from Washington. Long reported from Washington.