Top US military officer approved after abortion dispute delay

General Brown was approved 83-11 and will become the second black officer to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Charles Brown hs been the head of the US Air Force. Picture: AFP

The US Senate has confirmed Charles Brown as the country’s next top military officer, one of hundreds of nominations that have been stalled by a lone senator’s protest against Pentagon abortion policies.

General Brown was approved 83-11 and will become the second black officer to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – after Colin Powell from 1989 to 1993 – at a time when the Pentagon is headed by Lloyd Austin, the country’s first black secretary of defence.

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer also moved to set up votes on the nominations of Randy George as chief of staff of army and Eric Smith as commandant of the Marine Corps.

“They should already be serving in their new positions. The Senate should not have to go through procedural hoops just to please one brazen and misguided senator,” Senator Schumer said on the Senate floor, voicing his frustration with Republican Tommy Tuberville.

President Joe Biden selected General Brown – who is currently chief of staff of the US Air Force – in May to become chairman after General Mark Milley retires on September 29, and the Senate usually approves military nominations quickly through unanimous consent.

Senator Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama who voted against General Brown, has blocked that option for months in opposition to Pentagon efforts to assist troops who must travel to receive reproductive healthcare that is unavailable where they are stationed. The Defence Department issued the policies earlier this year in response to the 2022 Supreme Court decision striking down the nationwide right to abortion. They allow service members to take administrative absences to receive “non-covered reproductive healthcare,” and established travel allowances to help them cover costs.

Because of Senator Tuberville’s actions, the Senate can approve military nominations only individually, which takes far longer – a total of about 30 days and 17 hours for all of them if senators worked the entire period without stopping, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said in an August 23 memo. That estimate was based on there being 273 military nomin­ations awaiting votes. The number currently stands at more than 300.

Senator Schumer had resisted holding individual votes until now, doing so only to head off a move by Senator Tuberville to force one on General Smith’s nomination alone, which the Democrat majority leader said amounted to the Republican “essentially trying to make himself the gatekeeper of which officers are promoted and who sits and waits”.

Senator Tuberville refused to back down, later saying his “hold will remain in place as long as the Pentagon’s illegal abortion policy remains in place”.

“If the Pentagon lifts the policy, then I will lift my hold,” he said – something the Defence Department has previously insisted it will not do.

US defence officials have repeatedly warned of the negative impacts of the nominations delay, and General Milley said in August that it could erroneously signal “instability, confusion, friction” in the armed forces, potentially emboldening America’s adversaries.

The US Marine Corps commandant stepped down on July 10, and General Smith has been performing two jobs – vice-­commandant and acting head of the service – for more than two months.

General George has been in the same situation since August 4, and Admiral Lisa Franchetti, who has been nominated to head the navy, since August 14.

AFP