Senators Feel the Christmas Crunch
December 1, 2023
by Eagle Forum Executive Director, Tabitha Walter
After several rough months for Congress, there remain real disagreements over abortion funding, immigration, and foreign aid that Congress must resolve before the end of the year.
Senator Tuberville’s Battle Against Taxpayer-Funded Abortion Travel Expenses
It’s showdown time for Senator Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) brave battle against the Department of Defense’s new policy to use taxpayer funds to reimburse travel for military personnel and their families seeking out-of-state abortions. He has, for the last ten months, been objecting to military promotions being approved by unanimous consent (ie, without debate or vote). Because Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has refused to allow individual votes on these military promotions (except for the Chairman of the Joint Chief, CQ Brown, and two others who were voted on in late September), there is now a backlog of hundreds of nominations.
There are many ways this impasse could have been resolved. First and foremost, the Administration could rescind the DoD memo issued by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after the Dobbs decision that changed DoD policy and “authorized” the spending on abortion travel expenses. If they did that, Senator Tuberville would allow all the nominations to be passed immediately. Second, Congress could include the House language repealing the funding authorization in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 “NDAA” (H.R. 2670/S. 2226). This bill needs to be passed and signed by Biden by December 31st.
But despite an outpouring of support for the pro-life provision by the grassroots, we have learned that the House language has been removed. Instead of allowing each conferee to cast their vote on the abortion travel policy, House and Senate leaders decided to be the ones to make the decision. The appointed pro-life conferees were denied the ability to fight because Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) denied them that opportunity.
Speaker Johnson was the only one to vote in favor of keeping the abortion funding ban. “Pro-life” Republican Leader McConnell refused to stand for the unborn and the language has been removed from the final bill.
Because the Democrats have placed abortion funding as their utmost priority, and Senator Tuberville is putting life and Congress’s authority to make the laws ahead of convenience, they are now trying to override Senator Tuberville by passing a resolution to change the rights of the minority. S. Res. 444 would allow “the Senate majority leader to initiate en bloc consideration of military nominations” instead of the current practice that gives each Senator the ability to require a cloture vote on individual nominations. Sadly, it seems that there are enough Republicans who are willing to go along with this harmful resolution. If this were to happen, the minority party would be giving up a tool that gives them the ability to demand votes on nominees who are pushing “woke” policies in the military.
Even though most Republican Senators have supported Senator Tuberville, a small number have attempted to publicly shame him and accuse him of hurting the military while ignoring the life issue. Others support his desire the limit abortion funding but want these empty military positions filled during a time of global hostility. Not wanting to inflict lasting damage on the rights of the minority by the adoption of S. Res. 444, Sen. Tuberville is working on a compromise. The details are unclear, but one possibility is requiring stand-alone votes on the most “woke” generals and filing a legal challenge to the DoD policy that is clearly in violation of current federal law.
Border Crisis
Republicans in the House and Senate are trying to force action on the crisis at the border before the session ends. It is astounding that even as liberal governors and mayors cry about the negative effects of the influx of illegal immigrants to their “sanctuary cities”, the Senate will not allow a conservative, comprehensive border security bill like the House-passed Secure the Border Act (H.R. 2) to be included in must-pass legislation.
The Democrat plan is to fund more border agents to “catch and release” illegals and hire more judges to fast-track the asylum process instead of securing the border and repealing the influx of those entering our country illegally. Ironically, some are suggesting Congress include a pathway to citizenship or amnesty provisions as part of “border security” reform!
Currently, the Senate Democrats are attempting to add these watered-down immigration provisions to a foreign aid bill for Israel and Ukraine. Providing aid for both countries in one bill is controversial. Ukraine has already received $76 billion from the U.S. without oversight or a clear strategic plan. The Senate has refused to bring up the House bill that provides $14.3 billion in aid to Israel and is offset by cuts to the IRS. Congress should enact this stand-alone Israel aid package before Christmas.
Action Opportunities
Once the final text of the NDAA is released, we will send you the details and encourage you to contact your elected representatives. We applaud Sen. Tuberville for fighting for life even when his own colleagues were attacking him. One of his strongest supporters, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), said this about Sen. Tuberville’s commendable actions:
He did something right then and there—something that whether you agree with the tactic he used or not, you got to find admirable. He has taken the bull by the horns. He utilized the resources at his disposal as any Division One Champion football coach would do.
Senator Lee went on to say this about the situation:
“We [Senators] can defend our own prerogative to make the law. You [President Biden] cannot make the law. You cannot rewrite the law. And shame on you, President Biden, for blaming this man. This man who is just trying to stand up for the law and for the unborn, you are blaming him for our supposed lack of military readiness. I can’t believe anybody buys this crap—I really can’t—let alone anyone from the same party as Senator Tuberville.”