On the recordJuly 19, 2023
I am sorry that the Senator from Alabama has objected tonight again. I think this is the seventh time that we have been out here having this conversation, when I have been trying to move ahead the promotions of our Defense Department and he has, in an unprecedented manner, opposed it. For 230 years, nobody in this Chamber has done what the Senator from Alabama is doing--putting a hold on the military promotions of people in uniform, of the flag officers of our Department of Defense, who ordinarily come through here in a customary way to get approved by the Senate, for obvious reasons--because we need them. They are for our national security. They have sacrificed their entire adult lives. They have sacrificed time with their families. They have sacrificed everything for this country. Now they have been put on a list to be promoted, and the Senator from Alabama has put a hold on them, which has never happened before in the history of the United States For somebody who has put this Senate to a grinding halt month after month after month, he has picked an odd argument with which to defend his position. He has said, time and time again, that what he is doing actually doesn't matter, that what he is doing in the face of Democratic and Republican--not that it matters, because the Secretary of Defense, you know, shouldn't think of himself as a Democrat or a Republican.…
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