Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has finally folded under Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) pressure, allowing Tuberville to force the Senate individually process and vote on a small number of military promotions, rather than approving nominees in groups. Schumer, who has blasted Tuberville’s monthslong blockade on key military positions that have thus far remained empty, said in his floor remarks Wednesday that the Senate will be “confronting his obstruction head on”—but he had decided to go with Tuberville’s way to end the stalemate. “It’s not the path the vast majority of senators on either side of the aisle want to go down,” Schumer said. The voting process could begin as soon as Wednesday afternoon and drag into Saturday, first tackling the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Marine Corps commandant, and the Army chief of staff. Tuberville has spent months blocking hundreds of promotions at the Pentagon in protest of a policy that covers servicemembers’ travel expenses if they need to go out of state for an abortion.
