Military Promotions

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, on Senator Tuberville's blockade, before the end of the year, the Senate must put a stop to a grave abuse carried out by the senior Senator from Alabama: the brazen, months-and- monthslong blockade of over 350 military nominees.

The blockade of hundreds of military nominees, to push the hard-right view on abortion, is something that the majority of Americans do not support. Let's look at what happened in the referenda results over the last 2 years.

It is something never seen before in the Senate. It has cost our military preparedness dearly. It has thrown the lives of hundreds of families into limbo.

Members on both sides of the aisle are reaching a boiling point with Senator Tuberville, and before the year is out, we are going to act to bring his blockade to an end.

In the coming weeks, I will bring a resolution to the floor, approved by the Rules Committee, allowing the Senate to quickly confirm the hundreds of military leaders that Senator Tuberville has obstructed. I thank Chairman Klobuchar and Senator Reed and everyone else who has championed this measure, and I hope my Republican colleagues who care about military preparedness end up supporting this resolution or at least getting Senator Tuberville to back down.

No matter what, we have an obligation to act because Senator Tuberville's military holds are an anomaly in the history of the Senate. If every Senator did what Senator Tuberville has done and held up military confirmations because of this or that partisan issue, no matter how deeply felt, it would grind the Senate to a halt. It would be a catastrophe for our military. We dare not go further down that road. We have gone too far already.

To all of my colleagues who don't want to see the military forever ensnared in partisan fights, I urge them to support this resolution or else implore Senator Tuberville to stand down.

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