Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama)’s months-long blockade of military promotions was heavily criticized for endangering national security, and now that it’s over, some senators have vowed to compensate senior officers for the pay they lost because of Tuberville’s blockade.
Military publication Stars and Stripes reported that an amendment that includes back pay for hundreds of military officers affected by the Tuberville blockade, which has lasted for most of 2023, has been included in a must-pass defense budget bill. Sens. Joe Manchin (Independent, West Virginia) and Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) led the amendment’s passage in the Senate Armed Services Committee, and it now awaits a vote on the full Senate.
“Congress has a responsibility to compensate them,” Manchin said. “I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure passage of legislation that compensates our troops and strengthens our national security.”
Read more: Here’s why Tuberville ‘succumbed’: Reports
According to Stars and Stripes, nearly two dozen officers awaiting promotion to brigadier general (one star) missed out on roughly $2,600 in back pay each month during the Tuberville standoff, which lasted from February to December of last year. Brigadier generals awaiting their second star (major general) lost an additional $2,000 each month. Not only did the officers themselves lose out on benefits that they would have received had their promotions gone through, but their families also lost out on benefits that they would have received had their promotions gone through.
“This bill will ensure that they and their families receive the benefits they’ve been denied for months,” Lowndes told the outlet.
The paper reported that many of the affected officers had been promoted for “exemplary service,” most of whom had been in combat zones. As the blockade dragged on, several Republican senators publicly denounced Tuberville on the Senate floor, accusing him of embarking on a “suicide national security mission.”
“We’re facing a really dangerous world right now,” Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said last fall. “With all due respect to my colleagues, it would be a mistake to say, ‘Don’t worry. This won’t affect our readiness.’ We’re not even close.”
Read more: ‘National security suicide mission’: Republican senators attack Tommy Tuberville
Tuberville initially pledged to use his powers as a senator to unilaterally block military promotions that require Senate approval over the Pentagon’s policy of compensating soldiers for reproductive health care, including travel payments if they need to leave their state to get an abortion, a procedure that remains illegal in many states following the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
If the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act passes the full Senate, it must pass the House before it can reach President Joe Biden’s desk. The Republican-controlled House has not yet indicated whether it will approve the back pay amendment.
Click here to read AL.com’s Stars and Stripes full report.
READ MORE: Kyrsten Sinema ‘worked quietly for four months’ to garner the votes needed to break the Tuberville blockade