The promotions of more than 250 generals and admirals hang in limbo due to a debate over taxpayer-funded abortion. Caught in a standoff between the Senate and the Pentagon, they’ll soon be joined by many more flag officers, including the next nominee for the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown.
The Senate Committee on Armed Services, arguably the most bipartisan committee on the Hill, might fix the impasse this week … if comity prevails. If not, the generals and admirals may be in for an 18-month wait.
The Constitution dictates that all military officers must be confirmed by the Senate. This power, granted in Article II, Section 2, is generally perfunctory — the Senate confirmed more than 10,000 officers last year by unanimous consent.
However, since February of this year, consent has not been unanimous. First-term Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., has objected to confirming flag officers (pay grade O-7 and above) in protest of the Department of Defense’s new abortion policy, which authorizes paid travel and up to three weeks of additional paid leave for service members and their dependents, to obtain an abortion. The Rand Corp. estimates that this will put the taxpayer on the hook for funding fewer than 20 abortions on average to more than 2,700 per year under the new policy.
Americans are split over the issue of abortion itself, but not over the issue of funding it with public money. Since 1977, most of the government has been subject to the Hyde Amendment, which limits taxpayer-funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or threat to the life of the mother. Likewise, the DOD is governed by U.S. Code 10, which prohibits the Pentagon from funding abortions.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin chucked that consensus when he inserted his department squarely into domestic politics two weeks before last November’s midterm elections. Shortly afterward, Tuberville warned the secretary that were he to follow through with the plan, he would hold all officer nominees at the rank of O-7 and above.
It’s a gamble the former SEC coach can win.
As much as Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, and even Joe Biden have tried to paint Sen. Tuberville as a lone ranger, the affable coach is far from alone. Many Republicans are joining Tuberville in defending life and protesting this administration’s attempts to turn the Pentagon into a five-sided faculty lounge. He has been joined on the floor by both Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Roger Marshall, R-Kan.
There’s a lot of other Republican support as well — every other GOP member of the Committee on Armed Services has publicly denounced the Pentagon’s policy.
What has not been publicized, however, is the support from the other side.
Backhanded help first came from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who introduced a bill that essentially takes Secretary Austin’s memo and gives it the force law.
This in and of itself is an admission from the president’s own party that the Pentagon is flouting the law. Why else would the Granite State senator believe her bill to be necessary? The bill also failed, which should be a clear warning to the Pentagon’s E-ring.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has twice introduced the exact opposite of Shaheen’s bill, forbidding the DOD from funding the facilitation of an abortion.
Here’s where Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., enters the chat.
Tuberville needs just one Democrat on the Armed Services committee to swing the vote in his favor.
Although staff is signaling that Manchin is opposed, take it from this former staffer that anything is possible when the 25 senators of the committee gather in a closed-door session amid the Gilded-Age finery of the Senate Russell Building.
Washington is already abuzz over last month’s poll that Manchin would lose a hypothetical 2024 Senate matchup by 22 percentage points to Jim Justice, the popular governor of West Virginia. Voting to allow the DOD to wage war on the unborn would undoubtedly be solid campaign fodder for Gov. Justice.
So whether the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) solves the Gordian knot over the Pentagon’s new taxpayer-subsidized abortion policy or Sen. Tuberville’s holds force a vulnerable Democrat to take an unpopular vote, either way is a win for the coach.
And what about the generals and admirals? The Senate may still approve these officers, but that must be done one by one, which is time consuming and requires hours of floor debate for each nominee.
And there’s another win for Republicans: Every hour of floor time devoted to confirming military nominations is an hour the Democrat majority can’t spend on pushing judicial nominations or left-wing social bills.
Therefore, the holdup of senior military officers is likely to continue.
What started as less than a dozen flag officers caught in Tuberville’s protest now equals the size of a company. And by the time the 2024 election comes around, that total may reach a constellation of one, two, three, and four stars.
Morgan Murphy is former national security adviser to Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.
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