Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL)  announced in Washington on Tuesday that he was going to end his blockade of military nominees and promotions. Tuberville has been blocking the appointment and/or promotion of military officers across all of the uniformed branches of the Department of Defense in an attempt to end the DOD's illegal policy that allows taxpayer dollars to fund travel for service members or their spouses who are seeking abortions. 

Approximately 400 officers across all five branches of the military were either held in limbo as their acting service chief or had their promotions delayed due to the blockade since last July. Active duty commissioned officers, when first promoted to either Major or (in the case of the US Navy) Lieutenant Commander, must have their promotions approved by the Senate. Subsequent promotions to higher ranks have to be approved by the Senate as well, though usually, it is merely a formality.

With this action, the approximately 400 officers who were waiting on the confirmation for their promotions can now expect to have their careers move forward again. His actions forced Democrats to conduct a laborious process to go around his blockade. As Streiff wrote in March:

Tuberville’s “hold” on senior Defense appointments leaves limited options. The easiest one is for Austin to recognize that his action is illegal and rescind it. That doesn’t seem to be in the works. As all senior Defense nominees require the Senate to “advise and consent,” Tuberville’s lone objection can only be bypassed by Chuck Schumer, allowing debate and a vote on each nominee. This would require an investment of time that he just can’t afford.

Despite Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin accusing Tuberville of harming military readiness by instituting these holds, Tuberville stood firm in his convictions until Tuesday.

Tuberville emerged from a closed-door luncheon with his GOP colleagues, saying “all of us are against a rule change in the Senate.” He was adamant that “we did the right thing for the unborn and for our military” by fighting back against executive overreach. He expressed no regrets but admitted he fell short in his effort.

“The only opportunity you got to get the people on the left up here to listen to you in the minority is to put a hold on something, and that’s what we did,” Tuberville said. “We didn’t get the win that we wanted. We’ve still got a bad policy.”

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a briefing Tuesday:

“Well, certainly we’re encouraged by the news. We continue to stay engaged with Senator Tuberville in the Senate directly, to urge that all holds on all our general flag officer nominations be lifted.”

It's worth noting that in addition to the officer promotions being held up by Tuberville, he was also holding up the nominations for the heads of some of the services, like the Commandant of the Marine Corps. In July, General David Berger retired as the Commandant, leaving his nominated successor, General Eric Smith, as the "acting Commandant," until he was confirmed in September.  

It is unclear at this time whether the ending of Tuberville's blockade of officer promotions will also include the ending of his blockade of senior officer's nominations to fill senior leadership roles, such as divisional or higher commanders, fleet commanders, or air wing commanders. However, this will allow several hundreds of officers to follow through with their orders to either change commands or duty stations that came along with their promotions.