A showdown with one senator over hundreds of generals and admirals is set to ripple through the US military

• Since February, Sen. Tommy Tuberville has put a hold on more than 250 military promotions.
• Tuberville vows to continue holding promotions to object to the Pentagon's abortion leave policy.
• Officials and experts say the effect will ripple across the force and through military families.

Gen. David Berger retired from the US Marine Corps on Monday after four years as its top officer and 42 years in uniform. Waiting to replacing him is Gen. Eric Smith, and he will continue waiting until one senator lifts holds on the promotions of more than 250 generals and admirals.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville began applying holds in February and vows to continue until the Pentagon rescinds a policy allowing troops to take leave and have their travel expenses covered for an abortion or other reproductive health services not offered by the department. Tuberville says the Biden administration is "flouting" legal restrictions on use of taxpayer money for abortions, though the Justice Department has deemed the policy lawful.

The holds could affect as many as 650 officers by year's end. US officials and experts say the delay will ripple through the military, preventing leaders from taking new commands, keeping families from moving to new homes, and creating friction across the force.

Tuberville's hold targets uniformed military officers over a policy set by the US military's civilian leadership, diverging from the longstanding manner in which members of Congress have expressed displeasure with such policies.

"It's perfectly appropriate for the for Congress to provide its oversight role in asking the civilian appointees — so service secretaries and other civilians in that chain of command — questions about policy, which are fundamentally part of the political system," Katherine Kuzminski, director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security, told Insider on Monday.

"Uniformed military officers do not set policy. They're only responsible for carrying out policy as it's currently written, and so the hold that Tuberville has placed is kind of a gross violation of civil-military norms," Kuzminski said.

The hold on Smith's confirmation meant the Corps couldn't hold a change of command ceremony on Monday, instead performing a ceremony in which Berger relinquished his office.

"It's been more than a century since the US Marine Corps has operated without a Senate-confirmed commandant," Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III said during the ceremony.

"We have a sacred duty to do right by those who volunteer" to serve in the military, Austin added. "I remain confident that all Americans can come together to agree on that basic obligation to those who keep us safe. I am also confident that the United States Senate will meet its responsibilities."

Speaking next, Berger said, "We need the Senate to do their job so that we can have a sitting commandant that's appointed and confirmed."

Smith, speaking last, referred to himself as "the individual performing the duties of the commandant" and told the audience and Marines that "all orders, directives, and guidance which were in effect this morning remain in effect unless I direct otherwise. Further guidance to the force will follow."

'We will lose talent'

The military has been bracing for the impact of the holds. Speaking to reporters during the Modern Day Marine conference in Washington DC on June 29, Smith outlined the limits of being an acting commandant.

"I'll have all the authorities of the commandant, except for a few: I can't live in the [commandant's] house, can't use the security detail, I cannot write a commandant's planning guidance," Smith said. "I can give guidance to the force as the acting commandant, but it does not carry the same weight quite as commandant's planning guidance."

Smith said he will still hold the job of assistant commandant and will have to reassign those duties, which will make it harder to maintain "synergy" as those responsibilities are "parceled out to four, five, six, seven officers who also have full-time jobs, and they will then in turn have to parcel some of their things out to a colonel, who will have to parcel his stuff out or her stuff out to a lieutenant colonel."

"The ripple effect is actually pretty significant," Smith added.

Other officials warned of similar effects at Senate Armed Services Committee hearings this spring.

"If I have general officers who are scheduled to retire and do so but I don't have somebody to replace them, I will suffer a gap" in some "fairly critical positions," Gen. Christopher Cavoli, head of US European Command, said at a hearing in May, referring to the general serving as US representative to NATO's Military Committee, who is set to retire this summer and is "a vital connection" between Cavoli and the committee.

At an April hearing, Adm. Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, said dozens of offices would be affected if the holds lasted through the year, including the chief of the Office of Naval Reactors and fleet commanders in the Western Pacific and the Middle East.

Gilday's deputy, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, told the committee a few weeks later that the three-star officers overseeing the Navy's air, surface, and subsurface forces "all rotate this year, and they are the ones that do the man, train, equip missions. So again, this will have the biggest impact on readiness if they are delayed."

Kuzminski told Insider that officers in acting roles right now have demonstrated good judgment over long careers and would take "decisive action" if needed but said "the real challenge is that it just adds a whole bunch of friction into the decision-making process on who needs to be cleared through and what authority individuals have."

A number of officials have said the most significant impact of the holds would be on lower-ranking officers, whose career paths could be affected, and their families, who will face uncertainty about their lives.

"It is the personal development, it is the family understanding and predictability" that will be affected, Adm. John Aquilino, head of US Indo-Pacific Command, told senators in April. "Will it hinder our ability to continue to maintain the right people in the right jobs to be able to then potentially advance and take the next right job? Absolutely."

At a hearing in March, Gen. James McConville, the US Army chief of staff, said the delay "is probably most felt in some ways on the families and the kids."

"Even though it looks like it is only 40 generals there are probably four or five other transitions that have to happen" as one officer advances, McConville said. "So what it really does is it affects the families and some of the kids. They are trying to figure out where they are going to go to school, when they are going to move, and all those things kind of come in to the readiness of the force."

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, the service's top civilian official, and his uniformed counterpart, chief of staff Gen. Charles Brown Jr. have both warned that holds will affect the desire of troops to remain in service.

"One of the things that motivates our people in terms of retention or not is how they feel that their families are being treated. Things like childcare and education and healthcare are all very important factors," Kendall said at a hearing in May. "When they are planning for that and it is disrupted, it has very negative impact, and it definitely impacts on retention as well."

Brown, who is nominated to take over as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday that troops will look elsewhere if they see military opportunities disrupted by political issues.

"We will lose talent because of those challenges," Brown said when asked about the holds. "The spouse network is alive and well, and the spouses will compare notes, and the member may want to serve but the spouses and the families get a huge vote."

Not targeting officers over policies has become a norm of civil-military relations "because they don't set the policy. They only implement the policy," Kuzminski told Insider, adding that current situation could "put a really sour taste in the mouth of service members."

'"Just vote" is not an answer'

While Tuberville is not alone in objecting to the Pentagon's abortion-travel policy, his holds have been widely criticized by Democrats and others. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said in May that he didn't support Tuberville's actions. Seven former secretaries of defense sent a letter that month to Senate leaders urging them to lift the blanket hold.

Tuberville has argued that Pentagon policy regarding abortion-related travel expenses should be set by law. He told CNN on Monday that as the minority in the Senate, "the only power we have is to put a hold on something, and so we thought that this would get to the attention of the secretary of defense."

In the CNN interview, Tuberville signaled that Brown's confirmation could move forward, saying "we will vote on him by himself." Tuberville has said the Senate could do the same for other held nominations.

"If the Democrats are so worried about Gen. Smith being an acting official, then let's vote," Tuberville said on the Senate floor on Monday, after moving to block Sen. Jack Reed's request to confirm Smith by unanimous consent — the 11th time Tuberville has done so.

The Senate typically uses unanimous consent to approve multiple nominations at once. Overcoming the holds would require voting on nominees individually. Speaking on the Senate floor on Monday, Reed said filing cloture on all the held nominations would take roughly five hours and that voting on them could take another 27 days if the Senate worked around the clock or 84 days if it worked eight-hour days.

"So 'just vote' is not an answer. This is not a feasible solution to this issue," Reed said.

There are other ways Congress could settle the policy. Kuzminski noted that both houses of Congress are working on their versions of the annual defense authorization bill and that senators were pushing to block the reimbursements, which would "un-do" the Pentagon's current policy, while Democrats in the House were working on enshrining the current policy into law.

"So one way or the other, Congress has the ability to change the law, but holding military leaders' nominations hostage is not exactly the way to go about actually changing the policy," Kuzminski said, echoing a sentiment shared by more than a few lawmakers.

"If the senator from Alabama continues his reckless action, he will soon be holding 650 leaders who have served their country honorably hostage," Sen. Elizabeth Warren said at Brown's confirmation hearing on Tuesday. "That has effects on many more of the best and brightest who have volunteered to serve our nation."