Democrats eye rules change to overcome Tuberville's stance
Senate Democrats are eyeing a new plan to try and work around GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville's holds on military promotions, which would require a temporary change in rules that would allow them to approve hundreds of military nominations en bloc, a source familiar with these conversations told CNN on Thursday.
Many Republicans including the ranking GOP member of the Senate Armed Services Committee say they are opposed to the move, casting doubt on whether it's a viable option as Tuberville's holds enter their tenth month.
The idea has been circulating for months, but has picked up momentum in recent weeks as it has become clear that Tuberville will not relent.
The proposal could go to the Senate Rules Committee as soon as next week, the source told CNN. The move would also need Republican support on the floor because Democrats want to do this at a 60- or 67-vote threshold to ensure that it would be bipartisan and to guard against a Republican majority in the future using a similar process to circumvent one at a time up-or-down votes on nominees moving through the Senate. The block of nominees wouldn't include some higher-level military promotions, which senators would still want to confirm one at a time.
Sen. Roger Wicker, Armed Services' ranking Republican member, told CNN he hasn't been part of the conversations about a rules change. Pressed on if he'd be open to it, he said, “No.”
Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, also told CNN, “No,” when asked if he would entertain a potential rules change to more quickly advance hundreds of military nominations.
“You have to be careful when you start changing rules because they have ramifications beyond the immediate incident,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, told CNN.
Sources urged caution as it is still possible that Democrats do not move forward with the change, but it represents a real option as Tuberville has stood in the way of nominations for months. The move was first reported by Punchbowl News.
While Democrats leading the effort, including Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, say they are continuing to talk with GOP colleagues about the path forward, the effort faces some significant hurdles including a potential backlash from the anti-abortion community that could see any effort to skirt Tuberville's holds as an afront to the GOP's orthodoxy on a core issue.
Since February, Tuberville has been holding up military promotions because of a Department of Defense policy that reimburses travel costs for members of the military who have to leave the state they are stationed in to get reproductive care in another state.
The department enacted the policy after the reversal of Roe v. Wade last year, overturning the constitutional right to an abortion and leaving the issue to individual states.