After nine months of jeopardizing national security and treating military families like political footballs, Tommy Tuberville finally ended his one-man blockade on military promotions and pay raises for hundreds of service members.

As a reminder, Tuberville refused to approve more than 400 military promotions to protest an unrelated policy to help service members and their families access needed health care — specifically, to travel to access abortion care.

This blockade imposed serious consequences, including:

• Leaving our national security at risk, and not just for the past nine months: This hold likely did permanent damage to our military in terms of retention and recruitment — and hurt the United States’ standing in the world.
• Leaving hundreds of military families — who have sacrificed so much — in limbo: without formal assignments, they couldn’t make decisions about moving or enrolling their kids at new schools.
• Leaving critical positions unfilled: We didn’t have a Chief of Staff of the Army or a Commandant of the Marine Corps or a Chief of Naval Operations because Tuberville wouldn’t let us confirm them. And he held up the confirmation of the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

As we look for ways to award back pay to military officers whose promotions and raises were held up for nine months, I’ve got one suggestion: This back pay should be coming out of Tuberville's bank account.

Also, Tuberville is still stopping eleven 4-star military leaders from assuming their duties right now. I will stay on this until every single hold ends.

Now, you may be wondering: how could one senator block all these nominees?

Well, you know how the Senate has to confirm federal judges, ambassadors, cabinet members, and other top presidential nominees? The Senate also has to approve thousands of military promotions every year. Typically, those votes are just formalities. But Tuberville took advantage of Senate procedural rules to hold all of them up.

And for months, Senate Republicans enabled this out-of-control obstruction.

Here’s the way I see it: we cannot, cannot, cannot allow this tactic to become another tool the Senate GOP uses to create more chaos in our government.

Republicans have already shown that they’re willing to leave a Supreme Court seat vacant if there’s a Democrat in the White House.

Republicans have already wielded the filibuster to block Democratic Senate majorities from passing bills that vast majorities of Americans support.

Republicans have already weaponized the debt ceiling to extract policy demands that they otherwise wouldn’t have enough votes to pass.

It can’t become similarly routine for service members and their families to be used as pawns.

Also, make no mistake: it’s no surprise that abortion rights are the underlying issue here. The American people support reproductive freedom, and Republican extremists know it, so they look for ways to enact their agenda without going through the ballot box.

I will stay on this until every single hold ends. I’ll keep fighting to overcome any escalation of the GOP’s obstruction. I’ll keep working to get things done for the American people. I’ll keep pushing back as they try to rip away even more reproductive freedoms.

And I’m always grateful to have your support.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth