The US Army has a new chief of staff and the Marine Corps a new commandant after the Senate confirmed two generals to the posts on Thursday – while hundreds of Pentagon appointments remain blocked by an anti-abortion Republican senator, according to AFP
General Randy Alan GeorgePhoto: AA/ABACA / Abaca Press / Profimedia
The nomination of Gen. Randy George as Chief of Staff of the Infantry was approved by a 96-1 vote in the Senate, while that of Marine Gen. Eric Smith was approved unanimously.
Both confirmations come a day after Gen. Charles Brown was confirmed as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Gen. Randy George had already been acting chief of staff since Aug. 4 and the departure of his predecessor.
General Smith had held the same position in the Marine Corps since July 10.
The Senate usually approves military appointments quickly and by unanimous vote.
But for months, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville has deliberately blocked hundreds of military appointments.
The Republican opposes Pentagon financial assistance for military personnel who must travel for abortions because some states abolished abortion rights following a Supreme Court ruling last year.
The Senate can get around this hurdle by holding a vote on each nomination, but the process then becomes much longer than the usual procedure of approving them unanimously without a vote.
Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has so far been reluctant to hold these individual votes. He decided to do so only to counter an attempt by Tuberville to force a vote only on the nomination of General Eric Smith.
US defense officials have repeatedly warned of the potential negative repercussions of this delay in validating the nominations.
The current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, told AFP last month that this situation could give adversaries the “erroneous” impression that the US is in a situation of “internal division, instability, confusion and friction at its highest level of (his) army”.
