President Biden said on Thursday it was irresponsible of a Republican senator from Alabama to block military officers’ confirmations in protest of a Defense Department policy that pays for travel when a serviceman has to leave the state to get an abortion or reproductive care. to get.

He is endangering American security by what he is doing, Biden said of Senator Tommy Tuberville. It’s just totally irresponsible in my opinion.

More than 260 nominations are being held back by Tuberville, including Biden’s choice for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, America’s highest-ranking military officer. The US Marine Corps is currently without a confirmed leader due to the blockade for the first time in a century. It also affects dozens of one-, two-, and three-star officers who are assigned to new base commands.

I would be willing to talk to him if I thought there was an opportunity to change his ridiculous position, Biden said during a press conference with Finland’s president. Biden traveled to Finland in a show of support for the new NATO member following the alliance’s summit in Lithuania this week.

The idea that we are injecting into fundamental foreign policy decisions what is effectively a domestic societal debate on social issues is bizarre, Biden said.

There were also efforts at the Pentagon to encourage Tuberville to drop his opposition. The senator told reporters later Thursday that he had just spoken with Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and expected to speak with him again.

The blockade also affects the families of nominees, who usually move to their new military communities during the summer so school-age children can settle in before the fall.

And it extends to hundreds of younger military personnel who don’t need Senate confirmation but are still hit by the hold because they’re assigned to serve as staff or aides to the relocating generals. Those assistants also move their families. So they are

actually

also fixed.

A proposal last month to hold a Senate debate on the Pentagon’s abortion policy as part of annual defense bill negotiations was seen by some senators as the best prospect for getting Tuberville to lift those grips, but he resisted against it.

The action by Alabama senators ends decades of precedent in which groups of military officers and promotions are approved by vote and without objection. Jack Reed (DR.I.), chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, has said that if the Senate voted individually on the 260 nominations, it would take 27 days if the Senate worked around the clock or 84 days if the Senate would work eight hours. one day

Tuberville has said he wants Democrats to solve the problem by introducing and then voting on abortion policy legislation. Tuberville does not have its own policy change account.

I’ll leave it to you, Tuberville said Wednesday.

But Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer says Republican leaders, most of whom have criticized Tuberville’s positions, need to persuade the senator to change his mind. Biden also said Tuberville’s fellow GOP senators should work to stop his blockade.

I am convinced that the ruling Republican party does not support what he is doing, but they must stand up and be counted. That’s how it ends, Biden said.