AFA 2023 — Top military officials this week used the largest annual gathering of airmen and Guardians to speak out against the hold on officer promotions launched by Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, warning that its effects are emboldening adversaries, weakening military readiness and discouraging the nation’s top uniformed talent from continuing their career in the armed services.
Some of the starkest comments at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber conference came from Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly, head of Air Combat Command. Kelly, whose retirement plans have been stalled by the confirmation hold, hardly held back in describing its effects.
“I’d go so far as say if you drive north of the National Cathedral on Connecticut Avenue, that popping sound you hear is not stray gunfire. It is champagne corks at the Chinese embassy bouncing off the walls” due to the impacts of Tuberville’s actions, he told reporters during a Tuesday roundtable at the conference in National Harbor, Md.
Besides encouraging adversaries, Kelly also warned that the hold is “not instill[ing] confidence” with allies and partners — some of whom are “downright concerned” — and in his opinion, is risking the loss of countless seasoned officers.
RELATED: Air Force’s Kendall says servicemembers held ‘hostage’ by Tuberville confirmation blockade
Each military family “has their own individual red line,” he said, referring to those thrown in limbo and unable to plan steps like putting kids in school. “And I’ll be honest to you, I talk to them every day. And we are on the fringe of losing a generation of champions.”
Adm. Christopher Grady, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also discussed the effects of the hold at the conference. Presuming Gen. CQ Brown’s nomination to be the next joint chiefs chair is stalled beyond the end of Gen. Mark Milley’s tenure on Sept. 29th, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters this week that Grady would take over Brown’s duties as acting chairman until the Air Force general is confirmed.
“There’s clearly impacts, and the one that gets me the most is the impact on the individual” as well as their families, Grady said during a Wednesday panel discussion at the conference. The hold is hurting readiness, recruiting and retention, the admiral said, lamenting that “there’s a very significant human dimension to this that I wish we could get past.”
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who has been outspoken about the effects of the hold, used his Monday keynote address to blast Tuberville, though not by name.
“This is a situation that one senator has created for us,” he said. “My message today for that one senator causing all this disruption and uncertainty, is that all these men and women and their units and their families are having their readiness and their lives negatively impacted by your unprecedented actions,” he added.
“On behalf of all men and women serving their country honorably today who cannot speak for themselves, I am asking you to lift the blanket hold you have on over 300 general officers awaiting Senate approval of their well-earned promotions,” he said, drawing raucous applause from an audience of troops, civilians and defense contractors.
Tuberville put the hold in place in March after the Pentagon started providing service members with leave and travel reimbursements if they seek an abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
The Alabama senator insists that Democrats could move each individual nomination forward — using a more time-consuming floor vote rather than grouping several nominations together and passing them by unanimous consent — though the Congressional Research Service recently estimated [PDF] that doing so would require some 89 days of Senate work wholly dedicated to the effort. As the CRS assessment was conducted in August, that number has likely grown.
Other Republicans on Capitol Hill have started to speak out against the hold as well, with House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul calling the hold “paralyzing” and a “national security problem” in a recent interview with CNN.
While service officials were lambasting the hold at AFA, just a few miles away Tuberville was one of the senators sitting in on a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing for Brown’s nominated successor, Gen. David Allvin. Per Roll Call, Tuberville voiced his support for Allvin’s nomination, saying “I wish they’d bring you to the floor today, I’d vote for you to be confirmed … Hopefully that happens in the near future.”
Officers approved for a promotion have 18 months to be confirmed by the Senate, which can be extended by 12 months before the officer must be re-nominated, Ryder said in a Wednesday statement to reporters. It’s not clear how long the stand off between the Pentagon and Tuberville might drag on, though Kendall emphasized the DoD wouldn’t budge.
“As far as I can tell, we’re not going to change the policy. I see no indication of that. And I don’t think we should quite frankly,” he told reporters during a roundtable following his keynote address. “So we need to resolve this. It’s gone on long enough. It’s doing a lot of harm.”
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