I posted on Tuesday about how Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville finally caved and released the holds on all but 11 of the hundreds of military promotions that he had held up for over nine months, disrupting the lives of the people and the functioning of the units in which they serve. He did this because he objected to the military reimbursing members of the military for medical treatment that required them to go to another state. He was not objecting to all treatments, just for those getting abortions.

But the real question is not just why the US senate abides by self-imposed rules that enable a single senator to gum up the works like this, but why these promotions needed senate approval in the first place. I can understand why the top people such as the secretary of defense, the secretaries of the five branches, and perhaps even the very top officers in each branch may need to be approved. But once those people are in place, surely they are the best judges of who should be promoted within the ranks? What is the purpose of this level of micromanagement? Surely the senate has more important things to do such as, say, funding the damn government?

Besides, how can the senate possibly give careful consideration to so many people? This is usually why they are usually approved by what is known as ‘unanimous consent’, where the senate approves the entire lot in one go. It is only if some red flag is raised about an individual that they might be examined separately from the rest. This is what they did for 425 officers the very same day after Tuberville lifted the hold. The senate will now proceed to approve the remaining officers one by one. It appears that Tuberville was persuaded by his colleagues to lift the holds not because it was so disruptive but because of fears that the Democratic majority might change the rules to prevent such nuisance holds in the future and the GOP wanted to preserve their power.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to senate micromanaging of the government bureaucracy. In addition to military promotions, there are between 1200 and 1400 federal employees whose appointment first require senate approval! This is ridiculous. Doing so takes an enormous amount of time, even if the process is cursory, and filling these positions can take years, so that by the time some people finally get hired, there will soon be a new election and the whole process starts over again. This also results in the senate, if they want to, being able to really hamstring a new administration of a president of the opposite party by holding up key appointments.

The ‘advise and consent’ role given to the senate by the US constitution can be useful but this is going too far. Requiring senate approval should be reserved for just the very highest level person in each area, who should then be free to appoint those whom they think will be best able to help them get the job done.