Cloture Motion

Floor Speech

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Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, 2 hours ago, Senator Schumer announced that we will be voting on the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Army Chief of Staff, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

It is about time. I have called for individual votes on these nominees for almost 6 months. Instead of voting, Democrats have spent months complaining about having to vote. They want to use floor time for things like liberal judges, like the one we confirmed a couple of hours ago.

Senator Schumer could have confirmed these nominees a long, long time ago. We have had more than 80 days off this year in the Senate, not including weekends. Yet Senator Schumer is outraged that we are voting on these nominations.

As I have noted before, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was given a floor vote in 2018. The current nominee for that position, General Brown, was given a floor vote for his current position not long ago. Despite what Senator Reed and others have said, there is nothing wrong with a floor vote on these nominations.

I ran for Senate so I could vote on behalf of the people of the State of Alabama. I didn't come up here just to outsource my job to the Pentagon or the White House. Yet that is exactly what Democrats want to do. That is the current position of Senate Democrats.

The Constitution says we make the laws here in Congress, not in the Pentagon and not in the White House. So this is not about me. It is about the Senate and the Constitution. This is a win today for the legislative branch of government. Voting gives all Senators a voice for their constituents.

The Constitution says that the Senate is to ``advise and consent'' to the President's nominations. Over the last 6 months, Democrats in this Chamber have actually complained that the Senate has too much power. Senator Schumer made reference this afternoon to proposals by Democrats to make the Senate weaker. Senate Democrats have been more than happy to go along with executive overreach when a Democrat is in the Oval Office.

Democrats have spent the last 6 months attacking me for standing up to an illegal and immoral new policy. Many of these attacks have been wrong on the facts. First, they said I was leaving important jobs open. That is false.

Then they complained that we have acting officials in many important roles. They claim that generals and admirals just can't do the job as an acting official.

Senator Reed came to the floor 2 weeks ago and said we ``have no effective military leadership'' in several branches of the military right now. One member of the House said the military is ``paralyzed.''

I don't even think the Pentagon would defend these accusations. Democrats still have never shown me one fact to show that we were behind on readiness. It is just not true.

Just last week, GEN Charles Flynn, our top Army general in the Pacific, said he hasn't noticed any challenges because of the hold--not any. Over the weekend, the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Milley, said our readiness is better than it has been in years.

This hold is not affecting readiness.

If Democrats want to complain, then they should look in the mirror. I don't control the Senate floor; the Democrats do.

In a typical week, we work 3 days. Those aren't the kinds of hours people are working back in my home State of Alabama. This is one of the least productive Senates in our lifetime.

Democrats can't have it both ways. Either they can confirm these nominees through regular order or they can stop complaining about acting officials.

Democrats say there is a large backlog of nominees. They say it would take a long time. Well, I agree. It has been a big backlog. But, again, Chuck Schumer allowed the backlog to build up over 6 months. It is his fault.

We could have been confirming one or two a week over the last 200 days. It would have taken us just 4 hours of voting each week.

But we didn't do it. We took another angle of just sitting back and watching. Chuck Schumer refused again and again and again.

We don't have a lack of leadership in our military. We have a lack of leadership right here in the U.S. Senate.

Despite the lack of leadership, Senators are perfectly capable of voting. Voting is our job. That is why we were sent here.

So to be clear, my hold is still in place. The hold will remain in place as long as the Pentagon's illegal abortion policy remains in place. If the Pentagon lifts the policy, then I will lift my hold--easy as that. That has been my position from the very beginning.

I am not afraid to vote on these nominees or on all of these nominees. I came here to this Chamber to vote, and I reserve the right to seek another cloture petition on the nominees in the future.

So that is where we stand today.

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