{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=2DC84DB9-3F7F-4FDA-B981-9F302CDB6D04", "McConnell Opening Remarks At Rules Committee Markup", "2023-11-14", "2023", "2023-11", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks at today\u2019s Senate Rules Committee markup:\n\n\u201cThank you, Madam Chair and Ranking Member Fischer.\n\n\u201cI\u2019d like to begin with the prime mover in this situation: an Administration policy I strongly oppose, which is designed to force American taxpayers to violate their rights of conscience.\n\n\u201cThe Department of Defense is in the business of raising, equipping, training, and maintaining the strongest fighting forces in the world. Inserting our military into the center of a politically divisive subject isn\u2019t just an ill-advised policy choice \u2013 it\u2019s actually dangerous.\n\n\u201cBut as I\u2019ve said for months now, our colleague from Alabama\u2019s response is not the way to reach the desired outcome he and I share. In fact, it\u2019s created a nearly unprecedented situation for the Senate to address.\n\n\u201cAs a general rule, when a President takes an executive action that a minority in Congress thinks is unlawful, you challenge it in the courts. And then, when the time comes, you elect a different President.\n\n\u201cThe Senate, for our part, also has the power to hold the nomination of a civilian Biden Administration official to a role with actual responsibility for the objectionable policy. Unfortunately, our colleague has chosen instead to exert his leverage on career military officers with no influence over this Administration\u2019s policy priorities.\n\n\u201cRight now, these holds affect 370 active duty positions. By the end of the year, if this situation is left unaddressed, it will impact 90% of our senior-most military commanders.\n\n\u201cMadam Chair, any one of us can talk for days about the growing challenges we\u2019re facing around the world. But none of it is worth a dime if we can\u2019t put experienced commanders in command in a timely manner.\n\n\u201cSo I\u2019m grateful to a number of our colleagues on both sides who have proposed plausible solutions to this situation.\n\n\u201cUltimately, the best path forward for everyone involved will be one that allows us to clear the nominations backlog and preserve our substantive opposition to the Biden Administration\u2019s atrocious policy.\n\n\u201cProductive discussions on that front are ongoing. And I\u2019m of the mind that we ought to allow them to continue.\n\n\u201cSo I appreciate the work put into the standing order proposal the Committee is considering. But I\u2019m going to oppose taking that route at this particular moment.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:49:58Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=2DC84DB9-3F7F-4FDA-B981-9F302CDB6D04"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.894762109965086, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}