US Senate confirms top military official as hundreds of others held up

WASHINGTON

The US Senate on Wednesday confirmed Gen. CQ Brown to succeed outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley after months of delays prompted by Sen. Tommy Tuberville's procedural holds on hundreds of military nominees.

Brown was overwhelmingly confirmed in a bipartisan 83-11 vote four months after President Joe Biden nominated him for the post. The Senate is expected to confirm Gen. Eric Smith to be the next Marine Corps Commandant and Gen. Randy George to take the top post within the Army after both cleared procedural hurdles Wednesday.

Smith and George had been operating in an acting capacity as heads of their service branches for months while also carrying out their duties as the number two in the Marine Corps and Army respectively.

Tuberville has for over half a year blockaded hundreds of senior military officials tapped by Biden to assume new posts.

At issue is Tuberville's desire to have the Pentagon change course on its policy of providing paid time off for service members and their dependents to receive reproductive healthcare, including abortions, in states where access to the procedures is available.

The Defense Department instituted its policy in the wake of the Supreme Court's landmark 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a legal ruling that had enshrined federal abortion protections across the country for half a century. Following the decision, the US has adopted a patchwork state-by-state approach to abortion rights.

Over 300 senior military officials remain held up by Tuberville's ongoing hold, and confirming them individually would constitute a herculean time-intensive endeavor that would take months.

Tuberville has said he will not object to having the votes conducted individually but will maintain his hold on the bloc, meaning the logjam will continue through the near future without a significant change in his position.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin congratulated Brown on his confirmation but said "Tuberville’s continued hold on hundreds of our nation's military leaders endangers our national security and military readiness."

"It is well past time to confirm the over 300 other military nominees. The brave men and women of the U.S. military deserve to be led by highly-qualified general and flag officers at this critical moment for our national security," Austin said in a statement.