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It took roughly 10 months, but Sen. Tommy Tuberville last week largely abandoned his blockade against the confirmation of military nominees. Immediately after the Alabama Republican backed off his radical and unprecedented tactic, the Senate started clearing the backlog and quickly confirmed 425 officers.
But that burst of progress did not suddenly turn this into an all’s-well-that-ends-well story. A leading Navy official, for example, has said it will likely “take years to recover” from the far-right senator’s blockade.
It was against this backdrop that the Senate this week took fresh steps to at least try to put things right. NBC News reported overnight:
Senators passed a bill Thursday that would give a retroactive pay increase to service members who were affected by Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s monthslong hold on military promotions. The measure passed by unanimous consent, meaning all 100 senators agreed and no roll call vote was needed.
Note, the Alabaman could’ve objected to this effort. He instead co-sponsored the bill that was designed to address the unnecessary harm he caused.
It was just last week when the backpay proposal took shape, and now it has cleared the upper chamber, offering a timely reminder that Congress is capable of working quite quickly when it wants to.
“Tonight, just in the time for the holidays, the Senate is giving our military families a present: the justice and back pay they so richly earned and deserved,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “Finally, we are able to right the wrong of Sen. Tuberville’s illogical, hurtful, and dangerous holds and the massive impacts the holds had on military families. These men and women have worked so hard for our country for so long. And because of Sen. Tuberville, in a really nasty and whimsical holding back of their promotions, they weren’t getting paid.
“Well, tonight at long last we are giving these military families, families that have already sacrificed so much, the justice they deserve: their back pay. It’s a good night for them, and it’s a good night for America. America is keeping its promise and saying to these men and women: you served us well; you don’t deserve to be penalized in any way at all.”
For these officers and their families, this is the good news. The bad news is that the measure now heads to the Republican-led House, which won’t consider the bill until the new year because its members have left town.