Tuberville's military promotions block is upending lives, combat readiness, 3 military branch chiefs say

Sen. Tommy Tuberville's (R-Ala.) blanket hold on senior military promotions, now in its sixth month, is eroding U.S. military readiness, upending the lives of military officers and their families, and putting national security at risk, the secretaries of the Navy, Army, and Air Force argued Monday in a Washington Post op-ed and Tuesday night on CNN.

Tuberville's block, purportedly in response to a Pentagon policy on abortion travel reimbursement, has left the Army, Navy and Marine Corp with no Senate-confirmed leader and "prevented the Defense Department from placing almost 300 of our most experienced and battle-tested leaders into critical posts around the world," Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Army Secretary Christine Wormuth wrote in the Post. Their spouses have been unable to move into new jobs and their children are in limbo as the school year begins.

Wormuth told CNN's Jake Tapper about one general officer spending $10,000 a month to keep their aging mother in an assisted living facility instead of the home they will move into once Tuberville's hold is lifted. Kendall added that one of his general officers was recently taunted by a Chinese counterpart. "Our potential adversaries are paying attention to this, and it is affecting how they view the United States and our military capabilities," he said. "This needs to stop."

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"As someone who was born in a communist country, I would have never imagined that actually one of our own senators would actually be aiding and abetting communist and other autocratic regimes around the world," Del Toro said. Tuberville's hold "will continue to have a real negative impact on our combat readiness, and that's what the American people truly need to understand."

Tuberville, a former college football coach who mainly lives in Florida, declined CNN's request for an interview, but he said on social media his blanket hold will allow him to "look into the backgrounds" and "scrutinize" the 300 officers up for promotion. His block is not popular in Alabama, according to one August poll, and it has already been criticized by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and seven of his predecessors.