It Would Take 700 Hours Of Floor Time To Process All the Military Nominations Being Blocked By Tommy Tuberville, Report Says

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Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is holding up more than 300 nominations to various positions within the Department of Defense.

Oftentimes the Senate approves such nominations – particularly lower-level ones – via unanimous consent in which no vote is taken and no senator objects to the confirmations on the floor.

But under current Senate rules, a member does not have to be physically present in the chamber to block nominations. Instead, he or she must only inform Senate leadership that they are placing a hold.

Tuberville said he will maintain the hold until the Pentagon rescinds its policy of reimbursing service members who travel out-of-state to receive abortions. The Biden administration instituted the policy after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion. Many states have since passed bans on the procedure, which has limited or effectively eliminated the ability of service members to obtain abortions where they are stationed.

Tuberville and other Republicans have repeatedly criticized Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), claiming he can simply bring the nominees to the floor and try to confirm them with a full vote of the Senate. That’s technically true, but a memo released on Wednesday by the Congressional Research Service concluded that it would take hundreds of hours of floor time to process the nominations he is blocking.

The memo, which was written when 273 nominations were being held up as opposed to the more than 300 now, said it “would take the Senate approximately 689 hours and 20 minutes of floor consideration, plus two days of session at the start of the process for cloture to mature on all 273 nominations,” the memo stated.

“This total represents approximately 30 days and 17 hours to process all 273 military nominations, assuming the Senate worked 24 hours a day without break or interruption by other business,” it continued. “Alternatively, based on the above assumptions, if the Senate exclusively processed these nominations during eight-hour session days, it would take approximately 89 days to confirm all 273 nominees.”