Unanimous Consent Requests--Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROMNEY. Mr. President, I rise out of great concern for our military, for its readiness in a time of great peril but also out of concern for the men and women who are being held up and whose careers and prospects and families and plans are being interrupted by virtue of the decision by, in this case, two people--one is Secretary Austin and the other is Senator Tuberville--to take intractable positions.

And it is simply a, in my opinion, an abuse of the powers we have as Senators to say if there is something we vehemently disagree with, that we are going to use that power to hold up the promotion of over 350 men and women in our military.

We each have things we might disagree with, with the military, and some would come with deep personal convictions about their morality. But if each Senator felt empowered to hold up all promotions in our military unless we got our way on one of those issues, why, our military would grind to a halt.

This power is extraordinary that we are given as individual Senators, but it is incumbent upon us to use it in a reasonable way and not to abuse it in such a way that we end up putting in harm's way the capabilities of our military and the well-being of our men and women in uniform.

Senator Tuberville correctly pointed out--I believe he is absolutely right--that what Secretary Austin did was in contravention of the Hyde amendment, against the law. We have a process for pursuing things that are done by an administration that are against the law. It is the court process. I am happy to join with an amicus brief or even file a legal action to reverse the Pentagon's policy. That is the process we should follow in a circumstance like this, not one that is being exacted upon 350 men and women whom we need to have in service and whose lives are being so badly disrupted.

I would also offer this: Senator Tuberville, if the Department of Defense, Secretary Austin were to say: OK. We will no longer pay for the travel of these individuals and their dependents but instead allow a private charity to do so, would that be acceptable to you and allow this to go away?

I am looking for--yes. So for instance, if Secretary Austin agrees, all right, we will eliminate this policy, but we will allow a private charity to provide for the travel for someone who wants to receive an abortion in a State where that procedure is legal, would that satisfy you and allow this impasse to be resolved?

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Mr. ROMNEY. Would that be an acceptable alternative?

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Mr. ROMNEY. Yes. Well, I have ways of doing that, which is I will pick up the phone and have that conversation. But we have to make sure that we do not continue to hold up 350-plus people from being able to get promoted. That is essential to our military.

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