WASHINGTON – After months of delays, the Army and Marine Corps finally have senior officers to represent their service branches on the Joint Staff.
The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to confirm the nominations of Gen. Randy George as chief of the Army and Gen. Eric Smith as Marine Corps commandant.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Wednesday had announced he was sending the confirmations – typically handled by the Senate Armed Services Committee – for a floor vote.
The Marine Corps had been without a confirmed top officer and Joint Staff rep since early July, when former Commandant David Berger retired.
And the Army was in the same spot after former Chief of the Army Gen. James McConville relinquished command Aug. 4.
Schumer’s decision to send the nominations to the floor was offered as a workaround to Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) months-long hold on confirming more than 315 officers up for key leadership roles in protest of a Pentagon policy to pay troops’ out-of-state travel for reproductive services — including abortion and in-vitro fertilization.
As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee — which can approve military nominations swiftly and in bulk — Tuberville can block speedy confirmations since the voting has to be unanimous on those decisions.
But after voting Wednesday against the confirmation of incoming Chief of the Joint Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Tuberville joined colleagues Thursday to unanimously confirm Smith, with George confirmed as well — nixed only by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).
Lee and Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) all joined Tuberville in voting down Brown’s nomination Wednesday. Brown was finally confirmed by a vote of 83-11.
In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin congratulated the generals on their promotions, but slammed the delay, saying they were “long overdue.”
“Ensuring we have Senate-confirmed military leaders in place is critical to the defense of our nation and the readiness of our force,” he said.
Though Brown, George and Smith are now confirmed, Tuberville’s hold will continue to block the promotions of 316 other military officers nominated for key positions, which Austin called “unprecedented, unnecessary and unsafe.”
“We continue to see the impacts of the hold on over 300 of our outstanding general and flag officers,” he said.
“I’m committed to engaging with members of Congress until all of our highly qualified general and flag officers are confirmed.”