Democrats want to change Senate rules to stop Republican senator from protesting Pentagon's abortion policy

Democrats want to change Senate rules to ensure that President Joe Biden's military promotions are approved without protest.

What is the background?

Last year, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) promised to block every Biden civilian and general flag officer nominee to protest the Defense Department's policy of using tax-payer dollars "to fund travel and paid time off for service members and their dependents seeking an abortion."

In February, Tuberville enacted a "hold" on all general and flag officer nominees. Since then, he has blocked numerous attempts by Democrats to circumvent his "hold."

What do Democrats want?

It's not exactly clear what rule Democrats want to change, they're just certain the rules must be changed to stop Tuberville.

"We need to talk about changing rules that Republicans have learned to exploit. We can’t continue in a world where one senator puts our entire national defense at risk because he doesn't like one policy followed by the Department of Defense," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told The Hill. "Sen. Tuberville's hold is just another indication of the madness that seems to have seized extremists in the Republican Party."

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) agreed.

"I do think we need to look at reforming the rules. I’ve thought for a long time we should reform the rules, and this is Exhibit A of why we need to do that," he told The Hill.

Typically, nonpolitical nominees, like military officers, are approved by unanimous consent. But the inability to approve them through unanimous consent does not block the nominations per se. Instead, nominations are forced to go through the standard nomination process (i.e., full Senate roll-call votes).

So far, Tuberville's "hold" has slowed the promotion nominations of more than 200 military officers. If it drags on, hundreds more will be affected.

Tuberville has pledged to keep his "hold" until the Senate votes to codify the Pentagon's abortion policy. If that vote fails, Tuberville wants the Pentagon to drop the policy. Of course, the policy would never pass the Senate because it does not have the support of 60 senators.

As of last week, Tuberville said the White House has not dialogued with him about the issue. But that hasn't stopped the White House from attacking him.

On Monday, President Joe Biden called it "bizarre." White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, meanwhile, said it's "dangerous" and threatens national security.

However, no one making that claim has explained exactly how adding stars to generals' uniforms endangers national security.

Military.com explained:

Despite the concern, many top positions filled by senior officers could be filled temporarily by deputies and others, or officers without term limits could stay on until lawmakers finally approve a successor, meaning the military would not be riddled with actual vacancies.

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