Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R), who is holding up more than 280 senior military promotions over the Pentagon’s abortion policies, said Tuesday he’s not likely to change his position before the Senate departs for a five-week August recess.
“No, I’m not going to change my mind,” Tuberville told “The Hill on NewsNation” when asked whether he would drop his holds before the long break from Washington.
“First of all, I’ve had almost zero communication with the White House,” he said, pointing to what he sees as the lack of serious engagement from the president and his senior advisers over the standoff.
Tuberville argued the Biden administration injected politics into the Pentagon by implementing a policy to pay for service members to travel across state lines to obtain abortions and family planning services.
“There’s nobody more for our military than me, but I do not want our military to turn into a woke political military. Our military is not union for a reason. It’s not an equal opportunity employer, either. It’s for people that want to protect and defend the United States of America and its allies,” he said in an interview from the Russell Rotunda before the Senate resumed consideration of the annual defense authorization bill Tuesday.
“If they really cared about readiness and the things that really need to be happening with our military, they’d change this back in five minutes,” he said of the Defense Department’s abortion policy.
Tuberville says Congress should have to pass a law to allow the use of taxpayers’ money to pay for abortions, which he says is currently prohibited by the Hyde Amendment, which traditionally bars federal funding for abortion.
Tuberville told reporters before voting Tuesday that he does not anticipate voting on any amendment to the annual defense bill that will satisfy his concerns enough to drop his hold on military promotions.
He indicated the impasse over the stalled military promotions may last weeks longer.
“They better start talking,” he said of senior White House officials. “It could go a long time if somebody don’t start the conversation.”
Tuberville said he liked the language included in the House-passed defense bill that would bar the Defense Department from reimbursing service members who travel to obtain abortions.
“I like the House version but it won’t make it anywhere,” he said.
