'Unprecedented!': Schumer Blasts Tuberville For Blocking Military Nominees

Now, the hold on senior military nominations. Defense readiness is impossible without military commanders in place to execute our national defense strategy. Senators have regularly worked together to confirm routine military nominees quickly, ensuring no lapses in the work of our military. But right now, 160 military promotions, 160. These are non-political. These are men and women who have worked their way up through the ranks and deserve promotion to general, to colonel, et cetera. But 160, including five three-star generals, are on hold because the senior senator from Alabama is holding them up because he can't get his way on blocking 160,000 women within the military from receiving health care.

Blocking military choices is unprecedented, unprecedented. Hasn't happened before. And it could weaken our national security. And the number of those who are blocked is going to grow even larger as new nominees are reported out of the committee, which they do regularly. Among the general and flag officers on hold by the senator from Alabama include commanders for US naval forces in the Pacific, the Middle East, and the US military representative to the NATO military committee, something really important at a time when war rages in Ukraine. The commanders of the fifth and seventh fleet are the commanders of US naval forces confronting the likes of Iran and China. They are being held up single-handedly by the senator from Alabama.

It shouldn't have to be said. But the senator from Alabama's hold on hundreds of routine military promotions is reckless. It damages the readiness of our military and puts American security in jeopardy. Now, look, all of us feel very strongly, passionately, at times about certain political issues, certainly as strongly as the center of Alabama feels about this one. But if every single one of us objected to the promotion of military personnel, whenever we feel passionately or strongly about an issue, our military would simply grind to a halt. The senator from Alabama's actions risk permanently politicizing the confirmation of military personnel for the first time ever. And that would cause immense damage to the military's ability to lead and protect us.

I can't think of a worse time for a Maga Republican to pull a stunt like this as threats against American security and against democracy are growing all around the world. I urge members of his own party to prevail on the senator from Alabama to stand down in this unprecedented and dangerous move and allow these critical, non-political, non-partisan military nominees to go through on Medicaid and the budget. Today, the governor of North Carolina is signing legislation to expand Medicaid eligibility. Following the passage of a bipartisan compromise through the North Carolina General Assembly last week, one signed as many as 600,000 North Carolinians will soon enjoy health care coverage previously denied to them. House Republicans should follow the example of their state-level counterparts and work with Democrats to expand services like Medicaid, not cut them. They should join Democrats to strengthen health care for all Americans, not threaten extreme cuts like the House GOP has been doing for months. In the American Rescue Plan, Democrats passed a major new incentive to get holdout states who expand Medicaid to cover its low-income citizens.

We should build on this work. Now, House Republicans have bent over backwards, claiming social security and Medicare are off the table. But what are their plans for Medicaid? Republicans have been disturbingly evasive about whether or not they want to cut Medicaid. And so Americans, unfortunately, remain in the dark. If a moderate state like North Carolina is expanding Medicaid with bipartisan support, what the heck are Maga Republicans doing threatening to cut it? It shows how difficult it will be for House Republicans to put together a plan that gets 218 votes. So we repeat, Leader McCarthy, today's March 27th. It's nearly three months.

Where is your plan? Is Medicaid on the GOP chopping block? Are the Maga Republicans pulling the Republican Party here in the Senate, here in the House, rather? Further to the right, even as North Carolina, a moderate state in a bipartisan way, passes legislation to expand Medicaid? Will tens of millions of Americans find out that their benefits will be curtailed or eliminated? Let me say again, instead of obsession about ideological spending cuts that harm millions of people, Republicans should work with Democrats to strengthen vital health care services. And we should do that while also agreeing to lift the debt ceiling together without brinksmanship, or blackmail, or hostage-taking.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Senate