Sen. Kyrsten Sinema seeks 'middle ground' on abortion fight stalling military promotions

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has offered to help seek “middle ground” in the standoff pitting a Republican senator against the White House and Pentagon over a policy allowing government reimbursement for travel costs tied to abortion procedures.

Speaking last week at a closed-door meeting with the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, Sinema, I-Ariz., said she disagreed with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., but respects the power each senator has to hold up work in Washington, D.C.

Her recorded comments, first reported by NBC News, cast Sinema as a potential mediator on an issue that has further hardened the national battle lines around abortion rights. It also brings a spotlight to Sinema’s legislative voting record supporting abortion rights and to her support for preserving traditional Senate powers.

A Tuberville spokesperson told NBC the senator “has been open to discussions with the administration from the beginning, but the Pentagon freshly reiterated its unwillingness to negotiate with Tuberville.

“We’re not going to change our policy on ensuring that every single service member has equitable access to reproductive health care,” Sabrina Singh, a Defense Department spokesperson, said Tuesday during a news briefing.

“If you are a service member stationed in a state that has rolled back or restricted health care access, you are often stationed there because you were assigned there. It is not that you chose to go there," she said. "So a service member in Alabama deserves to have the same access to health care as a service member in California as a service member stationed in Korea.”

Tuberville has used Senate rules to hold up military promotions because the Pentagon allows travel compensation to military members who had to leave their bases to access health care unavailable to them locally. That policy includes women who seek abortion services in states where those services are no longer available since the Supreme Court decision last year left the matter to each state.

The Biden administration supports the reimbursement policy and opposes the rollback of abortion rights generally. The stalemate has held up hundreds of nominations so far, including one to fill the commandant position heading the U.S. Marine Corps.

Answering a question about the bottleneck in military promotions last week, Sinema said she urged both sides “to be flexible in finding a solution” on an issue where they have so far been intractable. She called Tuberville “coach,” a title he once held as head coach of Auburn’s football team.

“I’m encouraging both coach and the administration … to be flexible in finding a solution,” she said. “There is always a solution to the problem. It may not be everything the coach wants, and it may not be everything that the United States military and the administration wants. But there is a solution to be found.

“What I have offered to both coach and to the administration is to help in any way that I can to help find that solution, because it does exist. It always exists.”

She did not specify to the audience her recommended solution to the impasse.

“What we’re in is a position of pain. We’re in a pinch point right now. Coach wants something the military and the administration is not willing to give him. But it would be a mistake to take away that tool from a United States senator because it is an important tool to address unmet needs,” she said.

“What we need is folks to step away from their positions and find that middle ground to solve the challenge that we’re facing.”

Sinema said she believes Tuberville doesn’t want to hurt the military, and the White House and Pentagon aren’t trying to undermine Senate powers.

In a statement Thursday, a Sinema spokesperson said the senator “believes our national security should be above politics.

“She is laser-focused on protecting America’s military readiness, and that includes ensuring military officer promotions are quickly confirmed. As always, Kyrsten remains committed to working with anyone to overcome partisan obstacles in Washington and deliver lasting solutions.”

Sinema historically has voted to protect abortion rights, and she sought to distance herself last week from Tuberville’s view, saying, “I disagree with coach on what his concern is.”

At the same time, Sinema also made clear she supports preserving senators’ power to stall business as they deem appropriate and noted her own use of that last year ahead of passage of legislation that brought new spending to mitigating climate change.

As a final holdout on the bill, Sinema tied her support to inclusion of drought-mitigation funds for the Southwest while preserving the lower tax treatment for hedge fund managers.

Her offer to help broker a breakthrough on the reimbursement policy is in line with Sinema’s frequent role as a Washington dealmaker, and someone whose centrist role can come at a cost.

In 2021, she helped pull together bipartisan support for a $1.2 trillion national infrastructure law after the White House and Senate Republicans failed to do so in direct talks. She also helped find common ground on a bipartisan law creating more checks on gun purchases by young adults in the biggest change to gun laws in decades.

At the same time, Sinema, a former Democrat, saw her popularity plummet with her then-party when she provided unstinting support for the legislative filibuster over key Democratic priorities, including voting rights protections ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

Sinema potentially inserts herself in the Tuberville dispute as her political future is in question.

Her term expires next year, and she has not formally said she is running for another one. Her campaign finance records suggest she is, and she already faces a challenge from Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and from Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, a Republican.

Tuberville’s legislative blockade has angered Senate Democrats who have suggested he could allow votes to proceed and register his disapproval at that time.

Last month Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former Navy fighter pilot, led a parade of complaints from others in his party.

“I’ve been here for two and a half years. There is not something I’ve felt more strongly about than this, and I don’t think the senator from Alabama gets it,” Kelly said on the floor of the Senate.

“This blockade of military promotions is doing real damage to our national security right now. It’s doing great harm to military families and it’s going to have cascading effects for years. Every single day that this continues, the consequences, the consequences of this get more severe.”

Gallego, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and an Iraq War veteran, has used even harsher language describing Tuberville’s holdout.

In an opinion piece last month for MSNBC, Gallego called it a “selfish political stunt.”

“In my time in Washington, I’ve learned there are two types of politicians: those who serve this country and those who serve themselves,” he wrote. “The hundreds of thousands of active-duty Marines currently left without leadership are 10 times the public servant Tuberville will ever be.”

Kari Lake, the former broadcaster who lost the 2022 gubernatorial race to Gov. Katie Hobbs, has long hinted she could join the Senate race. She challenged Gallego and Democrats in supporting Tuberville’s position.

Arizonans are “tired of Ruben’s incessant schoolyard bullying,” she wrote in a tweet. “They want their representatives to act like grown ups.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema seeks deal ending stalemate over abortion policy