GOP senators plan new push to confirm military nominees, challenging Tuberville

Republican senators will again push to confirm military nominees Wednesday evening in a direct challenge to fellow GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville and his blockade on promotions.

The move, according Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, will be a repeat of an earlier Senate floor confrontation with Tuberville, who has opposed swiftly confirming hundreds of officers in a bid to force the Pentagon to overturn its policy of covering travel costs for troops seeking an abortion.

“I made a commitment to the men and women in uniform that I would continue to try to move them. I keep my commitments,” Sullivan said in a brief interview.

Sullivan said he, potentially alongside Sen. Joni Ernst and the other three lawmakers who challenged Tuberville on Nov. 1, would return for another Republican-on-Republican clash. The list of participants will depend on whose travel schedules will permit it, he said.

A day after Senate Rules Democrats advanced a measure aimed at skirting the holds, Sullivan said he was chagrined with a lack of progress overall.

“I would say [talks with Tuberville] are going good, we have a lot of ideas, but we haven’t resolved anything,” he said. “It’s frustrating.”