(TheRedWire.com) – On Tuesday, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) announced that he would be releasing his hold on military promotions for officers below the 3-star level. However, he will keep his hold on the 4-star officers and generals’ promotion.
Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) presented the idea to move in such a way. Tuberville, who agreed with the idea, informed the Senate GOP of his decision and then told reporters that he would no longer be holding up the promotions and that he would be releasing the promotions of these people.
Tuberville has had a hold on all promotions for close to 10 months as a result of a Pentagon policy that allowed service members to be given time off as well as funds to cover their expenses if they needed to travel out of the state they were stationed in to receive abortion care. The Senator’s decision to hold all nominations led to tension in the Senate GOP conference as many Congressmen were stuck between providing support to the U.S. military or taking a strong stance against abortion.
The announcement on Tuesday was a relief for senators. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had previously stated that he was against the tactics used by Tuberville and told reporters that he was “pleased” by the recent development in the situation.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) argued that the solution sounded “reasonable” and that they were generally supportive of the agreement reached.
Before Tuberville decided to change his tactics, the Senate Democrats had planned to hold a vote to change the upper chamber’s rules to advance over 400 nominees whose promotions were being held up.
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