A Republican senator from Alabama, Tuberville has been steadfast in his refusal to allow Department of Defense nominations for promotion to reach the Senate floor en masse because, he alleges, the DOD is unlawfully using taxpayer dollars to facilitate abortions for military personnel.
Federal law, U.S. Code 1093, reads that funds available to the Department of Defense may not be used to perform abortions except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term, or in case of which the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.
The code further states that no medical treatment facilities, or other facilities of the DOD, may be used to perform abortions except under the same stipulations.
It certainly appears the Pentagon is breaking federal law. To get around last summer’s Supreme Court ruling that returned abortion decisions to the states, the DOD enacted a new military policy this year: It will pay for travel and will extend paid leave for personnel to receive abortions in states with more liberal abortion laws.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre opened her Tuesday briefing admonishing Tuberville, a Senate Armed Services Committee member, by name.
“So I wanted to start today once again by calling out an unprecedented harm that Sen. Tuberville's actions have to our military readiness and military families, to every branch of our armed forces. He’s disrespecting those who serve and the families who serve with them,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.
In its war with the Pentagon, a second front was opened by the U.S. House last week when Republicans attacked the DOD’s woke policies though funding. The House passed a budget through the National Defense Authorization Act but with a plethora of amendments that outlawed things such as use of military funds for gender-mutilation surgeries.
The Democrat-controlled Senate is expected to release is version of the NDAA this week.
Biden himself has been critical of Tuberville, even criticizing the former college football coach in overseas press briefings.
Tuberville says he’s standing for the unborn and for taxpayers, and will not be moved.
A reality check about those 'holds'
There two important points to consider: readiness and reality.
Democrats have claimed from the beginning that Tuberville’s refusal to allow Department of Defense promotions keeps the U.S. armed forces from being prepared.
Taken at face value, their claim makes the situation sound like lives are at risk because readiness is at risk. The reality is the Senate can consider individual nominations, and advance those military personnel, whenever they choose.
Tuberville’s “hold” forces the Senate to consider and vote on all of the nominations, roughly 200 in number, individually rather than approving them more swiftly in groups by unanimous verbal consent.
Majority leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) would then be forced to commit valuable Senate floor time to the confirmation process. He’s been unwilling to do that.
That’s the reality.
Tuberville disputes the readiness claim, too.
“If I thought I was holding up readiness and national security in this country, I wouldn't be doing this, but that's not happening," Tuberville said on Washington Watch Tuesday. "What's happening, what's causing our readiness to have a problem, is the woke policies that this administration is pushing. It’s awful."
Administration policies like forcing the COVID-19 vaccine on military personnel and pushing the LGBTQ agenda are having a negative impact, Tuberville said.
“We’re way behind in recruiting, and we're destroying our military. Politics is destroying our military. They need to get out of it, and I don't think they really understand what they're doing to not just the military but all of our institutions. It’s a total mess right now,” Tuberville told show host Tony Perkins.
Coast Guard ignored readiness issue
On the same show, Perkins quizzed three retired military officers on the topic of readiness. All three said it’s woke policies, not holds on military promotions, that pose a national security risk.
Just days into his term, Biden reversed a military ban on transgender personnel that was put in place by former president Donald Trump. That forced Coast Guard Chief Rocky Rogers into a difficult position as supervisor for one of nine transgenders in the Coast Guard in 2020.
On Rogers’ six-man unit, the transgender soldier was often away on an “unimaginable” number of medical appointments.
“This member was rarely at work. It was a huge impact” on his unit’s ability to get the work done, Rogers said.
Morale plummeted.
“There was frustration; there was animosity,” he said.
Rogers sought guidance from superiors on three different occasions, but nothing was done.
“I would have like 65% of the crew to do 100% of the work. The command in the email would always say, ‘Chief, figure it out, and handle it appropriately,’” he said.
Rogers saw that as a sign that no one in leadership wanted to touch the issue.
Rogers said the force is further weakened when traditional military training is replaced by Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training.
“All this training is there because there is bullying and hazing and discrimination that no leader wants to admit is happening,” Rogers said.
A 'recruitment crisis' that is preventable
The head of marketing for the U.S. Army said today’s youth don’t view military service in the respectful way that perhaps their grandparents did.
But that’s not where the recruiting struggles end. The woke policies are showing up in the recruiting struggles, retired Army Major General Joseph Arbuckle told Perkins.
“The DOD’s ability to recruit adequate numbers of people in all services is critical to readiness,” he said. “We're suffering the greatest recruitment crisis we've had since the volunteer military was formed back in 1973. So you have to ask yourself. Why is that? Policies (like) Critical Race Theory and DEI are upsetting the entire force.”
In spite of the extra burdens placed on the military by the White House, the claim that readiness is adversely affected because Tuberville is working hold the administration accountable is false, retired Lt. General Jerry Boykin said.
“We are training people to move up to that next level, so if the guy that's in that position can't move out of it because the guy that's supposed to take it is being held up by somebody like Sen. Tuberville, that is not going to stop the war. It’s not going to stop the military from fighting," Boykin insisted. "It’s not ideal but it is not a catastrophic failure of our promotion system or anything else that's stopping us from being able to do what has to be done as a military force.”
