-9999
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. TUBERVILLE. military. I am thankful to every veteran all year long, not just on Veterans Day.
The Republican Party has been a pro-life party for half a century. We ought to be proud that we stand for life. We stand for the most vulnerable in our society, the unborn.
Let me explain, again, why I am doing this and how we got here and where we go from here. Nine months ago, the Pentagon announced that they would start using taxpayer dollars to facilitate abortion. The Pentagon is now paying for travel and extra time--time off--for servicemembers and their dependents to get abortions.
Let me remind everybody, Congress never voted for this. We also never appropriated money for this. There is no law that allows this administration to do this. In fact, there is a law that says they can't do this. It is 10 U.S.C. section 1093. It says the only time the Pentagon can spend taxpayer dollars on abortion is in cases of rape, incest, and a threat to the life of the mom.
So this is a policy that is illegal and immoral. This is about life, and it is also about the rule of law. It is about our Constitution. It is about whether we make laws at the Pentagon or whether we follow the Constitution.
This is also about the integrity of our military. The only thing in this world I honor more than our military is the Constitution itself, one that we all swore to serve.
I also feel really strong about the obligation to do something about this when the Constitution is attacked. I cannot simply sit idly by when the Biden administration injects politics in our military and spends taxpayer money on abortion.
The only power that a Senator in the minority has is to put a nomination on hold--the only power. I am not the first person to do this. Holds on nominations happen all the time. Holds on military nominations happen and have happened many times before. Typically, they don't last long because the Senator gets what he wants and negotiates, and then doesn't get what he wants. That is not what happened this time. Abortion is so important to the Democrats that they have not negotiated with me--zero.
This has been a long 9 months for us all. Every day this continues is a day that my Democratic colleagues think abortion is more important than these nominations.
I support many of these nominees. I agree that they are very, very important jobs. But we could have been voting on these nominees the entire time. I am not blocking all of these at once. Vote on them one at a time.
I have been talking about that. The Senate has had more than 90 days off this year. Each nomination could take as little as 2 hours. We confirmed three just last week. The nominees at the very top ought to be voted on anyway. They are very, very important positions. These jobs are too important not to receive the advice and consent of this body, the U.S. Senate.
I respectfully disagree with my colleagues about the effect my hold has on the readiness of our military supposedly--not being able to be ready because of people not in positions. But not one of these jobs is unfilled as we speak. Biden officials have been saying this for months, and nobody has explained to me what reasoning they come up with.
So the fact is, no jobs are going unfilled. Every job is being done. In fact, GEN Mark Milley, who just retired from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recently that our readiness is the best it has been in years. Time and time again, generals and servicemembers have assured me that they are ready. I believe them.
I am going to keep my holds in place. If Senators want to vote on these nominees one at a time, I am all for it. I will keep my holds in place until the Pentagon allows me the opportunity to negotiate this change of law. This is about our Constitution, and it is about the right to life. They are some of the most important things in this world and very important to me.
For that,
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source