ICYMI: Acting Chief of Naval Operations on Senator Tuberville's Military Holds: "It Will Take Years to Recover"

Yesterday, Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the acting Chief of Naval Operations, was the latest military leader to sound the alarm on the threat Senator Tommy Tuberville's hold on appointments carries for our military readiness, noting that it will "take years to recover." Admiral Franchetti is one of 319 high ranking military leaders who is awaiting appointment due to Senator Tuberville's blockade, which has had significant cascading impacts across the chain of command.

Admiral Franchetti also highlighted the damaging and disruptive impact Senator Tuberville's blockade is having on military spouses and families, saying, "Our Navy families are dealing with a lot of uncertainty […] We ask a lot of our families: to move, to uproot, find new schools, find new jobs for spouses, and I have heard a lot of concerns from our families that they are having difficulty navigating that space right now."

Read the full stories below:

The Hill: Navy will take 'years to recover' from Tuberville military hold, says Biden nominee
[Ellen Mitchell, 9/14/23]

It will take the Navy "years to recover" from Sen. Tommy Tuberville's (R-Ala.) months-long hold on hundreds of military promotions, according to President Biden's nominee to next lead the service.

"It will take years to recover from . . . the promotion delays that we will see going forward," Adm. Lisa Franchetti told lawmakers during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to consider her nomination for chief of naval operations.

Tuberville since the spring has held firm on a blockade against more than 300 nonpolitical military promotions over his objection to the Pentagon's policy to allow service members leave time and travel expenses to seek abortions outside the states where they are based.

Tuberville has refused to budge on his hold despite growing pressure from Senate Republican colleagues and leaders.

Military officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly argued the blockade hurts military readiness by keeping key leaders out of their intended jobs and adding stress to military families, putting national security in jeopardy.

On Thursday Franchetti echoed that thinking, telling senators that Tuberville's hold has created "a lot of uncertainty" for Naval families.

"We ask a lot of our families to move, uproot, find new schools, find new jobs for spouses, and I have heard a lot of concerns from our families that they are having difficulty navigating that space right now," she said.

If confirmed, Franchetti, who has been vice chief of naval operations since last fall, will be the first woman to hold the position of the Navy's highest-ranking officer. She will also be the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Biden nominated Franchetti in July, noting then that she had already made history as the second woman ever to achieve the rank of four-star admiral in the Navy.

Stars and Stripes: The Navy's recovery from Tuberville's hold on military promotions will take years, acting CNO says
[Svetlana Shkolnikova, 9/14/23]

The acting chief of naval operations said Thursday that it will take the Navy years to recover from the delay on promotions caused by Sen. Tommy Tuberville's procedural hold on military nominees.

Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the nominee for the Navy's highest-ranking position, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that untangling the monthslong blockade of more than 300 nominations and appointments would take three to four months for three-star officers alone.

"The Navy's facing challenges all around the globe, threats from our adversaries. We want to have the right people with the right level of experience in those positions," Franchetti said. "And as we continue not to have the confirmed people that we've nominated with that experience, we're going to continue to see an erosion of readiness."

Her own nomination to permanent chief of naval operations is expected to be stalled by Tuberville, R-Ala., as he refuses to let the Senate move forward on senior military confirmations in a bid to force the Pentagon to rescind an abortion access policy.

Franchetti would become the first woman to lead the Navy and serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, if confirmed.

She has been filling the role of chief of naval operations in an acting capacity following the retirement last month of Adm. Michael Gilday.

Officials serving on an acting basis are prevented from making long-term plans, such as hiring decisions, and cannot move into housing that comes with the job.

Franchetti told senators Thursday that she is personally seeing the impact of Tuberville's hold on military families, who have been left uncertain of when they will have to move or where they will live.

"We ask a lot of our families: to move, to uproot, find new schools, find new jobs for spouses," she said. "I have heard a lot of concerns from our families that they are having difficulty navigating that space right now."

The list of frozen military promotions includes Rear Adm. Yvette Davids, who was nominated in April to become the first female superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy. The academy for the first time in 60 years began the school year last month without a confirmed superintendent, according to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

"Every young person who is thinking right now about applying to the academy, and every young person anywhere in the Navy must confront head-on the fact that Sen. Tuberville has turned the Navy and the Naval Academy into one more political football," Warren said.

Tuberville, a member of the Armed Services committee, told Franchetti on Thursday that he looked forward to working with her but did not address his hold.

[…]

Half of the eight seats on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a body of the most senior uniformed military leaders, will be vacant when Army Gen. Mark Milley, the group's chairman, retires Oct. 1. The Pentagon said this week that the Joint Chiefs vice chairman would take over for Milley in an acting capacity if the Senate cannot confirm Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown for the job in time.

The Army, Marine Corps and Navy have all been left without Senate-confirmed leaders due to Tuberville's hold.

Tuberville and other Republicans have argued the Senate can easily go around the blockade by holding individual votes on nominees. But a memo released by Senate Democrats this week showed that process would last at least 89 days.

The memo, prepared by the Congressional Research Service in August, estimated it would take the Senate nearly 700 hours of floor time to vote on 273 military nominations. The number of affected nominees has since grown to more than 300.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who has refused to hold roll call votes on any of the blocked promotions, said Thursday that only Republicans can end the blockade.

"The bottom line is this: this is a Republican problem. It was created by the senator from Alabama, no one else, and it's up to Republicans to put pressure on him to back off, plain and simple," he said.

Politico: 'It will take years to recover' from Tuberville blockade, top Navy nominee says
[Connor O'Brien, 9/14/23]

Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy's No. 2 officer, has been leading the service on an acting basis because of the impasse.

President Joe Biden's nominee to be the Navy's top officer, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, said it could take the service years to recover from the impacts of Sen. Tommy Tuberville's blockade of hundreds of senior military promotions.

Franchetti told the Senate Armed Services Committee during her confirmation hearing Thursday that the impasse has created "a lot of uncertainty" for Navy families.

"Just at the three-star level, it would take about three to four months just to move all the people around," Franchetti said. "But it will take years to recover … from the promotion delays that we would see."

More than 300 general and flag officer nominees have no clear path to confirmation over Tuberville's objections, which he put in place over his opposition to the Pentagon's policy that reimburses troops who need to travel to seek abortions and other reproductive care. The Pentagon is standing by the policy and Tuberville has vowed to continue his procedural hold, so there's no end in sight to the standoff.

As the Navy's current No. 2, Franchetti has been doing the top job on a temporary basis since Adm. Mike Gilday retired in August. The Army and Marine Corps are also being led by interim chiefs who are waiting to be confirmed.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who quizzed Franchetti about the impact of the blockade, said the long-lasting effects create a "propaganda win for our enemies."

"Our military experts project China wants to be able to take Taiwan by 2027, and we'll still be trying to repair the damage inflicted by these holds," Warren said.

"The Republicans' failure to end this blockade makes it clear: they don't care about our leaders," she added. "They don't care about the families who have served their country honorably for decades."

[…]

Democrats, who've urged GOP leaders to talk Tuberville down from his tactics, estimate that nearly 90 percent of general and flag officers will be impacted by the hold between the over 600 officers requiring confirmation this year and other officers who will have to temporarily cover vacant jobs.

Confirming all the delayed promotions individually isn't practical and would take hundreds of hours. But Republicans contend Majority Leader Chuck Schumer should at least hold one-off votes on members of the Joint Chiefs. The problem worsens at the beginning of next month, when Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley retires with no Senate-confirmed officer to take his place.

Franchetti also underscored the "uncertainty" the blockade had created for Navy families, who face delayed moves, issues with school enrollments and other problems.

"Our Navy families are dealing with a lot of uncertainty," she said. "I have heard a lot of concerns from our families that they are having difficulty navigating that space right now."