WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, who has blocked hundreds of military promotions for months to protest the Pentagon’s payment of abortion-related travel costs, said on Tuesday he would lift his hold on some of them.
Tuberville’s actions have affected some 400 officers and their families, as well as lower-level officers in the military. Pentagon leaders have said the holds threatened national security.
“I’ve still got a hold on, I think, 11 four-star generals. Everybody else is completely released by me,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“It was pretty much a draw. They didn’t get what they wanted. We didn’t get what we wanted,” he said.
Republican Tuberville, a social conservative from Alabama, began blocking confirmations to senior Pentagon posts in March to protest a Pentagon policy enacted last year that provides paid leave and reimburses costs for service members who travel to get an abortion.
Democrats have said Tuberville should show his objection on a policy matter by targeting Biden nominees involved with policy.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward and Susan Heavey; writing by Costas Pitas; editing by Rami Ayyub)
