Consider This from NPR - Military Families Urge An End To Senator's Hold On Pentagon Appointments

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

One Republican senator from Alabama is single-handedly holding up over 300 senior-level military promotions and appointments. Senator Tommy Tuberville says he's doing it to take a stand against a Defense Department policy that reimburses travel expenses for military personnel who have to leave their states to get an abortion or other reproductive care. Tonya Murphy is a military spouse who went to Capitol Hill to hand deliver a petition signed by hundreds calling on lawmakers to stop the impasse. She explains how this political standoff is impacting military families. And NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman gives us the big picture overview of how all of this is affecting the Pentagon and, potentially, national security.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges. Nine campuses, one purpose. Creating tomorrow, today. More at iu.edu. How much power does a single senator have? A growing cascade of damage and disruption, all because one senator from Alabama and 48 Republicans refused to stand up to him. That is President Biden speaking out against Senator Tommy Tuberville, Alabama Republican who is using his power to single-handedly hold up hundreds of military promotions and appointments. The senator says he's taking a stand against a Defense Department policy on abortion. It reimburses travel expenses for military personnel who have to leave their states to

get an abortion or other reproductive care. Democrats say my hold is unprecedented. Well, I will say this, their abortion policy is unprecedented. We are here to make the law, not the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin put the Pentagon policy into effect last fall to ensure all troops have access to reproductive health care after the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion. Austin says lack of this care would interfere with the military's ability to recruit, retain, and, quote, maintain the readiness of a highly qualified force. Tuberville says he has not been given evidence that abortion access improves readiness. This is a taxpayer-funded abortion that nobody, and I mean nobody, voted for in this building or the other end of the building.

Since February, when the senator began his protest, more than 300 high-ranking military promotions have stalled. He has objected every time Democrats try to call up nominations on the Senate floor. I have laid out two conditions for me to end the holds. Either follow the law or change the law. I'll drop my holds as soon as Secretary Austin suspends the memo. The burden's not on me to undo the policy, this illegal policy. The burden is on the Biden administration to follow the law. The Senate is now in recess until after Labor Day. If the impasse continues, the Pentagon says the number of blocked promotions could rise to 650 by the end of the year. President Biden and other Democrats have begun calling attention to the potential risk to national security.

For the first time in more than 100 years, we don't have a sitting confirmed commandant of the Marine Corps. By the fall, we may not have a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We may not have military leaders for our army. There are real families behind each of these nominations. Coming up, we hear from one military spouse who traveled to Capitol Hill with a signed petition on behalf of these families, urging lawmakers to end the impasse. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly. It's Monday, August 7th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply.

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges. Nine campuses, one purpose. Creating tomorrow, today. More at iu.edu. It's Consider This from NPR. A few days ago, Tanya Murphy found herself on Capitol Hill helping to hand-deliver a letter. The letter called for an end to the impasse over military promotions. Hundreds of admiral and general nominees have been stalled since February as Senator Tuberville stages a one-man protest to try to change Pentagon abortion policy. Now, this affects not just the nominees, but their families, their spouses, including Tanya Murphy. She is married to a Navy commander. Murphy told me when they delivered the petition to senators back in late July, there were 500 signatures on it.

And it continues to grow. I think at last check it had nearly 800 signatures on it. As military spouses, living with uncertainty is something that we have become very accustomed to. But there becomes a point where it is a point of national defense and security when we're like, we're without service chiefs, right? That's really troublesome. When we spoke, I asked Murphy to elaborate on that, on what she sees as the threat to national security. So right now, the Marine Corps is without a confirmed commandant. The Army will be without their confirmed service chief in the next week, I believe. And then shortly after that, the Navy's service chief will also be moved to an acting position,

not a confirmed position. While we have acting individuals in those roles, they don't have the same authority when it comes to making certain decisions. And so they're not able to utilize the full power and impact of that role. They're kind of cut off at the knees because they are an acting chief of whatever service that they're representing. That's the problem right there. It really puts us at a disadvantage and a precarious position. Speak to me about timing now.

This hold has been in effect by Senator Tuberville since February, but you and I are speaking now in August. There's a new school year coming right up. Military families are trying to get settled, those who may need to relocate. How does the timing play into this? Oh, my gosh. So it is hard enough to move as a military family. We have done it nine, I say nine and a half times because this last move was kind of a little wonky. It's tough.

And when you're trying to get your kids to their next duty station, get them involved in the things that they participate with in their school. Whether that be trying out for a team, joining a club, making the connections that they need in order for a place to feel like home. You're at a disadvantage when you're at a hold, right? So these families can move ahead of their service members if they have the funds to do that. That's a huge financial hit for a military family. So I want to talk about how this whole fight over promotions is affecting your family. I know you're married to a Navy commander who's active duty. Your oldest son is a senior in high school. Is this affecting his thinking about whether he wants to follow into the military? Absolutely. So we all know that the cost of college is rising. And ROTC is one of those options that he's kind of brought up periodically over the years. It's like,

maybe that'll be one of the ways that I help pay for colleges by doing ROTC. At the ROTC, the Reserve Officer Training Corps. Yeah, the Reserve Officer Training, the pipeline for commissioning through college. And as he's looking at it now, our son has dealt with 18 years of military life at this point. He has moved through a number of schools. We are now living apart from his father on the day-to-day basis. And we'll, when all is said and done, have done it for 18 months. So there have been sacrifices made by all of us. And then when you look at this situation

where promotions are being blocked and you're seeing this happening to the most senior officers in our forces, it really has him and others sitting back and thinking, so if they'll do that to the most senior, most important members of service, how and why are they going to look out for me if I'm a newly commissioned officer, if I'm a newly enlisted soldier or sailor?

It's a moment of hesitation. It's a moment of really considering if the current cost of service is one that he is willing to pay. So if you were back on Capitol Hill right now, if you could have five minutes, one-on-one with Senator Tuberville, and just say, I need you to listen to me, sir, what would you tell him? That is a block that is only affecting these specific individuals. It is ignorant to think that just by affecting these individuals, you're not affecting their families and you're not affecting their coworkers and you're not affecting every individual who's watching this happen. It is such a bigger issue than just these individuals. I understand that he has his policy disagreement with some of the legislation that the DOD has put out and there are proper channels in order to address that and to move forward on that. Holding our military members hostage in order to achieve a goal is not the right answer. That is not how you support our troops. Putting them in situations

in the current situation where they do not have confirmed leadership is not how you show support to our troops. If you're going to support our troops, support our troops. Do not use them as pawns. Tanya Murphy. She lives with her family in Northern Virginia. She's married to a Navy commander and helped to hand deliver a petition last week calling for an end to the block on officer promotions. Tanya Murphy, thank you.

Thank you so much. Well, NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman has been listening in. And Tom, I want to ask, is what we just heard there from Tanya Murphy, are you hearing similar from Pentagon leadership? Do they also see this block by Senator Taberville as posing a threat to national security? No, absolutely. Mary Louise, it's very disruptive. You have officers who can't move on to their next command. You have other officers who can't retire. Some people, and this is really important, are doing two jobs at the same time. And besides the

complaints of military families we just heard, you also have a dozen or so retired senior officers signing a letter protesting this failure to prove senior officers. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has talked to Senator Tuberville on at least one occasion. The defense secretary. Correct. And a number of past defense secretaries have also weighed in and said this is problematic. And then, of course, we're hearing pushback from some of the leading Democrats on Capitol Hill when it comes to military matters. Here's Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed talking about Tuberville's actions. The senator from Alabama has achieved something that Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin can only have dreamed of. I'm sure they would have paid good money to achieve it, but they don't have to. You know, pretty strong language there, of course,

but there's no indication that Senator Tarboville will give up his hold on these nominations. And actually, the senator says he has a letter signed by 5,000 veterans supporting his position. So again, there's no sense this is going to end anytime soon. This issue of the most senior military officers going up into the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, this goes all the way to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, right? The incoming one that President Biden has nominated, General C.Q. Brown. What happens to him? Well, we'll have to see. Right now, he'd be the second African-American to have that top military job. The current chairman, General Mark Milley, is slated to leave at the end of September. So the clock is ticking. Now, if General Brown isn't approved, the vice chairman of the Joint

Chiefs, Admiral Chris Grady, would step in and fill that job. Mary Louise, I was at a retirement ceremony for the Army Chief of Staff, and General Milley was at the podium, and he spotted General Brown in the audience and joked, I hope in two months you'll be standing here. But again, we don't know if that'll happen. And just to be clear on his status, he has been nominated. He's had his confirmation hearing, but now with everything on hold, it's a who knows situation. Absolutely right. Correct. We heard Tanya Murphy, the military spouse, they're talking about the possible impact on her son, on young people who may be considering joining the military. What about people already in?

Are you seeing any impact on retention? You know, we're not at this point. It's more just disruptive to the senior people who can't move. And those who are doing two jobs, again, that's the biggest problem here. Now, the Marine Corps, General Eric Smith is the assistant commandant and has been nominated for the top job, the commandant. The current commandant retired already. So now Smith will have to do both jobs. And it's tough because, listen, each job is different and demanding.

When you're assistant commandant, you meet with your counterparts in the other services. You decide what weapons to buy, what programs to continue or get rid of. And he's also the talent management guy for the Marine Corps, which officers rise up the ranks. Where do they go? So now, and the commandant, obviously, is running the Marine Corps. He's a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He would have meetings in the tank, the secret office space in the Pentagon with his counterparts on the Joint Chiefs. He may even be meeting with the president.

So now you have this guy who'll have to do both jobs or give some of those things he would do to other officers. Again, very disruptive. And it's happening in all the services. The Navy's nuclear propulsion program head, Admiral James Caldwell, has been told to stay in the current job. The three-star Marine general in Okinawa, he's been told to stay there because your replacement can't come because he hasn't been approved. And again, all of this is being played out across the services. And of course,

you know, as we've heard, it hits families really hard. Let's say you're a spouse and you accepted a teaching job and you're leaving Virginia, hope to go to Washington State. You're not even sure if you can take that job because you're not even sure if you're going to be there when school year starts. So this circles us back to the classic question, the tell me how this ends. You were just telling me, Tom, we see no signs that Senator Tuberville is considering backing down. He says this is all about Pentagon abortion policy. Do we see any signs that the Pentagon is reconsidering that policy? Absolutely not.

No, they're going to continue that. And they think it's important to the health and well-being of the force and also for recruiting as well. And, you know, allowing you to be reimbursed for travel for abortion or reproductive care is something that, you know, they say is not only the right thing to do, but really important for recruiting. Recruiting isn't doing that well right now. The Army is going to be short, maybe 15,000 soldiers this year. So this is something that is not helping recruiting as well, and they're really worried about it. And bottom line, the Senate is not in session again until early September, right after Labor Day. And no signs that the logjam is going to clear before then. That's right. And again, General Milley retires, you know, in September. So, right, this is really important for them to deal with this. Tom, thank you. You're welcome.

NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.