By Lauren Fox | CNN
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said Tuesday he is releasing the bulk of his holds for Senate votes to confirm military promotions.
Tuberville told his colleagues in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill that he will release the promotions for three-star nominees and below, the vast majority of the nominees.
The move comes after he faced bipartisan pressure to cease his blanket hold on military promotions over a Defense Department reproductive rights policy. Tuberville’s hold started in March and delayed the confirmations of more than 450 top military nominees.
Tuberville made the announcement that he was backing off the military holds with the exception of fewer than a dozen four star promotions during Senate lunch. He said it was important that Republicans be united and not vote for a rules changes that would have allowed Schumer to bring up nominees en bloc.
After almost a year of holding up the promotions of military nominees in opposition to a military’s reproductive rights policy, Tuberville said he has no regrets after he released hundreds of holds without getting anything in return.
“We saw some success. We didn’t get as much out of it as we wanted,” Tuberville said.
Tuberville added, “The only opportunity you got to get people on the left up here to listen to you in the minority is to put a hold on something. I think we opened their eyes a little bit. We didn’t get the win that we wanted. We still got a bad policy.”
Asked what his message was to military families who have been affected by his holds, Tuberville responded, “Thank you for your service.”
CNN’s Haley Britzky contributed to this report.
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