The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after holding off the nomination by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama for a month.
Brown, who currently serves as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, was approved by a bipartisan vote of 83-11 after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer invoked adjournment action. He said Tuberville imposed a hold on military candidates on March 8 in protest of the Pentagon’s policy of covering travel expenses for military personnel to obtain abortions in states where abortion is allowed. He is the first high-ranking military candidate to be approved since. (Related: Chuck Schumer denounces Tommy Tuberville, moves to vote on key military nominations)
Brown’s confirmation means the role of principal military advisor to the US president and international representative of the US military will remain vacant when current chairman Mark Milley steps down. Mr. Brown was appointed to his current position by former President Donald Trump.
🚨Chuck Schumer just accepted Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
As chief of staff, Brown put DEI at the heart of the Air Force.
Here’s a memo he wrote last August outlining Air. pic.twitter.com/hqMbo0e1Vx
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 20, 2023
Brown confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that he will take up the position on October 1, when his predecessor, Gen. Mark Milley, retires.
After Brown’s confirmation, the Senate moved to convene. closure Regarding the nominations of two other officers, Gen. Randy George as Army Chief of Staff and Gen. Eric M. Smith as Commandant of the Marine Corps. Both candidates are currently serving their nominated roles on an acting basis.
Mr. Schumer had previously urged Mr. Tuberville to rescind his reservations, arguing that military candidates cannot be approved by separate votes known as “regular orders.” “If this is a problem that Republicans created, we’re not going to shift the burden to Democrats,” he told reporters on NBC News. report.
By contrast, Mr. Tuberville had encouraged Mr. Schumer to use standing orders to finalize nominees. President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats have defended the Pentagon’s abortion travel reimbursement policy as essential to military recruitment. Criticize Republicans opposed the policy, calling it a “hymn to bigotry and ignorance.”
But many Republican senators and political commentators argued that Schumer’s reluctance to use regular order was a political strategy to emphasize the Republican Party’s anti-abortion views within the Democratic Party. use We will take up this issue as an election debate.
“I have never seen Chuck Schumer pass up an opportunity to pander to the radical left in his home turf. This move by a party leader is predictable,” Republican Sen. Roger Marshall (Kansas) told DCNF. wrote in an email.
“Senator Schumer has shown exactly what he could have done months ago with our military nominations, and he has refused to do so,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa. Ta. comment Shared with DCNF by her staff. “For all of you who are laying the blame at the feet of Tommy Tuberville, the Schumer family has had this opportunity for months.”
The White House and Milley did not immediately respond to DCNF’s requests for comment.
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