SENATE CONFIRMS 2 SENIOR MILITARY OFFICERS
Their promotions had been stalled by Tuberville blockade
The Senate voted Thursday to make Gen. Randy George the next Army chief of staff and Gen. Eric Smith the next commandant of the Marine Corps, confirming two more senior military officers whose promotions had been stalled by Sen. Tommy Tuberville amid a prolonged dispute over a Pentagon abortion policy.
With the votes to allow George and Smith to officially step into their new positions, the Senate has approved three of President Joe Biden’s military nominees since Wednesday despite Tuberville’s virtual blockade. But more than 300 other senior officers remain ensnared in the Alabama Republican’s monthslong hold on promotions with no clear path to immediate advancement in most cases.
Typically, senior officer promotions are approved in blocs by the Senate through unanimous consent to avoid lengthy floor debates and the politicization of votes around military commanders. But Tuberville has used Senate rules to block swift approval of such promotions.
He doubled down on his promise Wednesday night to continue with the tactic after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., chose to peel away three senior military nominations for individual votes under the
chamber’s cloture rules.
George, 58, has served as vice chief of staff of the Army since August 2022, and as the service’s acting chief since last month, when Gen. James McConville stepped down. George previously served as a senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. He also has commanded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Smith, 58, has served as the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps since October 2021, and as the service’s acting administrator since July, when Gen. David Berger stepped down as commandant to retire. Smith previously commanded U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Pacific. During the Obama administration, he also served as a senior military assistant to then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter, a position that he has said gave him a better appreciation for how different parts of the Pentagon
collaborate and at times compete for resources.
On Wednesday night, the Senate confirmed Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after Schumer teed up an individual vote on his nomination as well. Schumer’s move helped the Senate avoid the prospect of a temporary administrator filling the Pentagon’s most prestigious post.
Ahead of the vote on George, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said that, with Brown and George confirmed, Tuberville’s holds are affecting 317 nominations and 313 senior officers as of Thursday. Additional names will be added to the list as the year goes on, with about threequarters of the Defense Department’s 852 generals and admirals affected by year’s end, Singh said.
It remains unclear how many more nominees Schumer might seek to bring to the floor individually.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a Thursday interview that he anticipates Senate leadership will hold similar individual votes for each of the remaining nominations for Joint Chiefs of Staff jobs as they come up.
In addition to the votes for Brown, George and Smith, that process in the coming days is expected to include Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Gen. David Allvin, Biden’s nominees to lead the Navy and Air Force, respectively. If confirmed, Franchetti would be the first woman on the Joint Chiefs. Biden previously selected Adm. Linda Fagan to lead the Coast Guard, a military service in the Department of Homeland Security.
Blumenthal said there is no consensus among Democrats on how to proceed after that.
Changing the rules, he said, would take either 60 votes or a two-thirds majority, depending on how the process is carried out.
Tuberville imposed his hold on all senior military nominations in February, staging a protest of the financial assistance rendered to service members and their dependents who must leave the state where they are stationed to obtain an abortion. The Biden administration established the travel-reimbursement policy after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, as Republicanled states began to ban or severely restrict access to reproductive health care.