The Senate Rules Committee voted on Tuesday on a plan to allow consideration of about 350 pending nominations in a single parliamentary move, a dramatic change in precedent for the upper chamber intended to break Senator Tommy Tuberville's filibuster of Biden's military abortion policy by holding up the promotion of Cultural Marxist flag officers.
As matters stand now the Senate could easily pass each of these promotions individually with 60 votes, a threshold even Sen. Tuberville's critics admit they could easily achieve. The proposed Senate Rules changes would undo almost 250 years of congressional precedent designed to protect the rights of the minority party and set the stage for doing away with the filibuster entirely.
The Capitol Switchboard is (202-224-3121), call today and tell your Senators you want them to vote NO on the Senate Rules changes that take away the protections of the minority party's right to have open debate on the floor of the Senate.
November 14, 2023
Washington, DC
Conservatives are proud to stand behind Sen. Tommy Tuberville in his fight to protect the lives of the unborn. For months, Sen. Tuberville has stood fearlessly and alone in protest of an illegal policy implemented by the Department of Defense (DOD) to pay for service member travel in order to obtain an abortion.
He has done so by objecting to the unanimous consent passage of military promotions, using the leverage granted to every single Senator to slow down these promotions in protest of the DOD's illegal policy.
Sen. Tuberville's stand is unique. When the DOD signaled they would implement this abortion travel policy, he warned them not to do it. DOD Secretary Lloyd Austin did it anyway. Yet instead of simply demanding a vote on legislation he knows will fail, Sen. Tuberville chose to maximize his leverage with a tactic that actually withholds something the White House wants.
To be clear, Sen. Tuberville is merely blocking the unanimous consent package of groups of these promotions – which Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer could still bring to the floor and vote on at any time. Schumer has chosen not to do so, which has resulted in a backlog of military promotions. (To hear more from Sen. Tuberville, watch his recent interview with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.)
Sen. Tuberville has faced constant attacks by Democrats for his stand. But lately, he is coming under fire from some in his own party who are publicly attacking him for his tactic while offering no proposals of their own to credibly address DOD's outrageous policy.
Even worse, there are some Senate Republicans who now want to unite with Senate Democrats to modify Senate procedures to strip every senator of the right to block the unanimous consent passage of military nominations and promotions. We strongly oppose this effort, which would further degrade the rights of elected senators. Moreover, because this Standing Order is only being proposed to block Sen. Tuberville's efforts to respond to DOD's abortion policy, we view a vote on this Standing Order as a proxy vote on the abortion policy itself.
Specifically, this Standing Order would allow any senator to proceed to up to two or more nominations or promotions at a time, with a single vote. While this sounds innocuous, this undercuts the efforts of conservative senators (the senators most willing to use their procedural rights to fight for just causes) to use their leverage to block or respond to efforts by the left.
Furthermore, this Standing Order has no limiting principle. It is not far-fetched to suggest that a process put in place to confirm "two or more" military nominations or promotions will then quickly turn into confirming ambassadors in large groups, then judges, and also combining large numbers of bills into one package, for one vote. This rapid devolution is exactly what we saw when the nuclear option was imposed on the Senate. The nuclear option – which eliminated the filibuster for nominations – was originally imposed for a select group of judicial and executive branch nominations. In under a decade, it expanded to cover nominations to the Supreme Court, Cabinet level officials, and even the post-cloture debate time on huge categories of nominations.
Rather than attacking Sen. Tuberville publicly over his tactic and threatening to join Democrats in changing the rules of the Senate, Senate Republicans should either back up their colleague, or propose a different solution to credibly fight this outrageous policy from Biden's DOD.
It is rare to find true courage in Washington. It is even more uncommon to find sustained courage under pressure – but this defines Sen. Tuberville's sustained fight for human dignity and pro-life values against a lawless and inhumane administration. We are proud to stand with Sen. Tuberville. We oppose any effort to undermine him by changing the Senate's rules, and we urge all Senate Republicans to support him in opposing this the Biden administration's blatant attack on life.
The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell
Chairman, Conservative Action Project
Chairman, CNP Action, Inc.
Kevin Roberts, Ph.D.
President
The Heritage Foundation
The Honorable Tony Perkins
President
Family Research Council
Rebecca Weber
CEO, Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC)
Ed Corrigan
Vice Chairman, Conservative Action Project and
President & CEO, Conservative Partnership Institute
Wesley Denton
Chief Operating Officer
Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI)
Andy Roth
President
State Freedom Caucus Network
The Honorable Paul S. Teller, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Advancing American Freedom
Cleta Mitchell, Esq.
Senior Legal Fellow
Conservative Partnership Institute
The Honorable T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr.
Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs, President Ronald Reagan
Lori Roman
President
ACRU Action Fund
David Bozell
President
ForAmerica
The Honorable David McIntosh
U.S. House of Representatives
Former Member, Indiana
Alfred S. Regnery
President
Republic Book Publishers
L. Brent Bozell III
Founder and President
Media Research Center
The Honorable Bob McEwen
U.S. House of Representatives
Former Member, Ohio
Marty Dannenfelser
Vice President for Government Relations & Coalitions,
Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE)
Christina Murphy, Esq.
President
The Martin Foundation
Lourdes Cosio
Campaign for the American Future
Craig Shirley
Reagan Biographer
Presidential Historian
Kelly M. Kullberg
General Secretary,
American Association of Evangelicals (AAE)
Jack Park
Conservative Activist and Donor
Kristen A. Ullman
President
Eagle Forum
The Honorable Gary L. Bauer
President
American Values
The Honorable George K. Rasley Jr.
Managing Editor
ConservativeHQ.com
Sean Noble
President
American Encore
Grace-Marie Turner
Executive Director
Galen Institute
E. Paul Bigham
CEO
Bigham Agency
The Honorable Jason Rapert
President & CEO,
National Association of Christian Lawmakers
Nancy Schulze
Founder, CEO
RCW Speakers
Peggy Dau
Co Founder
NationsNet
Tom DeWeese
President
American Policy Center
The Honorable Peter J. Thomas
Chairman
The Conservative Caucus
Richard Manning
President
Americans for Limited Government
Elaine Donnelly
President
Center for Military Readiness
Dr. Paige Patterson
President
Sandy Creek Foundation
Saulius "Saul" Anuzis
President
60 Plus Association
Richard G. Scurry
Co-Founder
The Bible Literacy Project
Mike Davis
Founder & President
Article III Project
Walker Wildmon
CEO
AFA Action
Craig DeRoche
CEO
Family Policy Alliance
Dr. Jim Garlow
CEO
Well Versed
Dr. Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO
TheTruthCentral.com
Ralph A. Rebandt II
President/Founder
Michigan Lighthouse Ministries
Craig Dance
President/CEO
Champion Coach Inc.
David N. Bossie
President
Citizens United
Penny Y. Nance
President & CEO
Concerned Women for America
Kelly J. Shackelford, Esq.
President and CEO
First Liberty Institute
The Honorable Jim DeMint
Chairman, Conservative Partnership Institute and
Member, US Senate (SC 2005-2013)
Jenny Beth Martin
Chairman
Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund
Bob Carlstrom
President
AMAC Action
Thomas E. McClusky
Principal
Greenlight Strategies, LLC
Mike Berry
General Counsel and Director of External Affairs,
First Liberty Institute
Tom Jones
President
American Accountability Foundation
Terry Schilling
President
American Principles Project
William L. Walton
The Bill Walton Show
Resolute Protector Foundation
Chad Connelly
Founder and President
Faith Wins
The Honorable Becky Norton Dunlop
White House Advisor
President Ronald Reagan (1981-1985)
Scott T. Parkinson
Myron Ebell
Senior Fellow
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Star Parker
President,
Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE)
Rod D. Martin
Founder & CEO, Martin Capital, Inc.
Former Executive Committee Officer, Southern Baptist Convention
Guillermo J. Aragon
Chief Strategy Officer
Martin Capital, Inc.
Dr. Rick Scarborough
President
Recover America
Frank Pavone
National Director
Priests for Life
Trent England
Executive Director
Save Our States
The Honorable James C. Miller III
Budget Director for President Reagan, 1985-1988
Anne Schlafly
Chairman
Eagle Forum
Mark Fitzgibbons
President of Corporate Affairs
American Target Advertising
Brian Rogers
President
The Jesse Helms Center
Eunie Smith
President
Eagle Forum of Alabama
Seton Motley
President
Less Government
Kimberly Good
President
KCG Investment
Willes K. Lee
Lieutenant Colonel
US Army (retired)
The Honorable Elias Coop-Gonzalez
Delegate
West Virginia House of Delegates
Kevin Freeman
Founder
NSIC Institute
Kristan Hawkins
President, Students for Life of America
and Students for Life Action
Bishop E.W. Jackson, Sr.
Founder and President
STAND Foundation, Inc.
Ron Pearson
Executive Director
Conservative Victory Fund
Joan Holt Lindsey
President
Lindsey Communications
The Honorable Tim Huelskamp, Ph.D.
Former Congress (2011-2017)
1st District of Kansas
James L. Martin
Founder/Chairman
60 Plus Association
Allen J. Hebert
Chairman
American-Chinese Fellowship of Houston
Robert K. Fischer
Meeting Coordinator
Conservatives of Faith
Jennifer Hawks
President
Palo Alto RWF
The Honorable Richard D. Hayes
State Representative
State of Texas
Rosemary Schindler Garlow
CEO
Schindler's Ark
Judson Phillips
Founder
Tea Party Nation
The Honorable Mike Hill
Former Member
Florida State House
