Lt. Gen. Ronald Clark's promotion to lead Army^[1] forces in the Pacific and receive a fourth star is being held up in the Senate by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., the senator and his office confirmed Tuesday.

Tuberville is attributing the move to concerns over what role Clark, who currently serves as the senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, may have played in the initial secrecy surrounding Austin's hospitalization earlier this year.

"He should have been the one that told the White House and commander in chief, 'We got a problem, the secretary of defense is in the hospital in pretty bad shape.' But he didn't and so that's a show of non-leadership," Tuberville told reporters Tuesday. His office also provided a statement to Military.com confirming the hold.

Read Next: 13 Troops Killed in Abbey Gate Bombing Awarded Congressional Gold Medal Several Years After Attack^[2]

The hold, first reported by The Washington Post^[3], pauses Clark's career and once again revives the controversy and unanswered questions over Austin's choice to keep a critical medical diagnosis and subsequent hospitalization a secret from all but his inner circle.

When asked about Tuberville's move on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder urged the Senate to confirm all military nominees but stressed that Clark was a highly qualified officer.

"He's exactly the kind of leader that we need in our priority theater," Ryder said, also noting that Clark "was nominated for this critical position because of his expertise and his strategic level experience."

While Clark is not a highly visible military officer, he is notable because he was Austin's senior military assistant when the defense secretary underwent elective prostate cancer surgery on Dec. 22. Then, a week later, Austin was admitted to intensive care after he developed severe complications.

None of that information was made public or conveyed to the White House for days.

In the days following the Pentagon's public acknowledgment of the hospitalization, it became clear that a group of officials close to Austin knew about the hospitalization but waited days to inform President Joe Biden, Congress and the American people.

Pentagon spokesman Ryder told reporters in the days that followed^[4] that a series of issues -- including Austin's chief of staff coming down with the flu and his own failure to ask follow-up questions -- were to blame for the public and key government officials being unaware the defense secretary was sidelined at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.

The incident sparked a pair of investigations, as well.

One was ordered by Kelly Magsamen^[5], Austin's then-chief of staff and one of the key people who appeared to be at fault for the White House, Congress and the National Security Council being left in the dark. It found that^[6] there was no "indication of ill intent or an attempt to obfuscate" -- a conclusion that outraged congressional Republicans^[7].

Magsamen resigned from her position in June, but Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters her departure had nothing to do with the incident but rather that she had "earned some well-deserved time off."

A separate investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general^[8], launched in January, appears to still be ongoing.

Tuberville said he is awaiting the results of the IG investigation to see what it says about Clark's role in the incident. Whether he lifts his hold after the IG report is released depends on its findings, the senator said.

"If it comes out and says, 'He did it for this reason,' and I disagree with it, well, we're not going to let him have that promotion," Tuberville said. "I got an open mind. I got nothing against him. We need a strong military. We're in tough times right now, and I hate that we have to do this. But come on, get the IG report and get it out and let us look at it."

The move by Tuberville has echoes of a similar block the Alabama senator placed on all general and admiral promotions in the military for most of 2023, eventually holding up more than 450 officers. Tuberville was attempting to force the Pentagon to reverse its policy of covering travel and leave^[9] for service members who seek reproductive care, including abortions.

Amid growing pressure from fellow Republicans, Democrats and military families, Tuberville dropped the blockade^[10] in December without winning any change to the abortion policy he was protesting.

His latest hold differs in that it is targeted at a single nominee over an issue specifically tied to the nominee, rather than a blanket hold over a political issue the nominees have no say in.

But the hold still elicited frustration from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I.

"Lt. Gen. Clark is a very distinguished Army officer, and he has been evaluated by his superiors and considered qualified for the job," Reed told reporters Tuesday. "I don't think there's any deleterious information against him. I think he should be confirmed. This is another hold not based on the quality of the individual military person, but a political agenda."

Clark's nomination was advanced out of the Senate Armed Services Committee in July, two weeks after the nomination was sent over by the White House. While a hold cannot prevent a nominee from being confirmed, it means the Senate cannot approve the promotion under the fast-track procedures it normally uses for military officers and must employ its limited floor time for procedural votes on the nomination.

Asked whether the Senate would vote around Tuberville's hold to confirm Clark, Reed did not rule out the possibility.

"I think we have to get him confirmed because, again, playing politics with military promotions is not appropriate," Reed said.

When asked how long Gen. Charles Flynn, the man Clark is slated to replace, can remain at his post as the commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, Ryder said he didn't want to "get into timelines."

"We as a military are used to managing leadership of our commands throughout the world," Ryder added.

Related: 'What You've Done Is Embarrass Us': Republicans Rip into Austin at First Hearing Since Hospitalization^[11]

WASHINGTON — Passage of a six-month temporary spending bill would have widespread and devastating effects on the Defense Department, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin^[1] said in a letter to key members of Congress on Sunday.

Austin said that passing a continuing resolution that caps spending at 2024 levels, rather than taking action on the proposed 2025 budget will hurt thousands of defense programs, and damage military recruiting just as it is beginning to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Asking the department to compete with (China), let alone manage conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, while under a lengthy CR, ties our hands behind our back while expecting us to be agile and to accelerate progress,” said Austin in the letter to leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has teed up a vote this week on a bill that would keep the federal government funded^[2] for six more months. The measure aims to garner support from his more conservative GOP members by also requiring states to obtain proof of citizenship^[3], such as a birth certificate or passport, when registering a person to vote.

Congress needs to approve a stop-gap spending bill before the end of the budget year on Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown just a few weeks before voters go to the polls and elect the next president^[4].

Austin said the stop-gap measure would cut defense spending by more than $6 billion compared to the 2025 spending proposal. And it would take money from key new priorities while overfunding programs that no longer need it.

Under a continuing resolution, new projects or programs can't be started. Austin said that passing the temporary bill would stall more than $4.3 billion in research and development projects and delay 135 new military housing and construction projects totaling nearly $10 billion.

It also would slow progress on a number of key nuclear, ship-building, high-tech drone and other weapons programs. Many of those projects are in an array of congressional districts, and could also have an impact on local residents and jobs.

Since the bill would not fund legally required pay raises for troops and civilians, the department would have to find other cuts to offset them. Those cuts could halt enlistment bonuses, delay training for National Guard and Reserve forces, limit flying hours and other training for active-duty troops and impede the replacement of weapons and other equipment that has been pulled from Pentagon stocks and sent to Ukraine.

Going forward with the continuing resolution, said Austin, will “subject service members and their families to unnecessary stress, empower our adversaries, misalign billions of dollars, damage our readiness, and impede our ability to react to emergent events.”

Noting that there have been 48 continuing resolutions during 14 of the last 15 fiscal years — for a total of nearly 1,800 days — Austin said Congress must break the pattern of inaction because the U.S. military can't compete with China “with our hands tied behind our back every fiscal year.”

Johnson's bill is not expected to get support in the Democratic-controlled Senate, if it even makes it that far. But Congress will have to pass some type of temporary measure by Sept. 30 in order to avoid a shutdown.

WASHINGTON — Passage of a six-month temporary spending bill would have widespread and devastating effects on the Defense Department, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin^[1] said in a letter to key members of Congress on Sunday.

Austin said that passing a continuing resolution that caps spending at 2024 levels, rather than taking action on the proposed 2025 budget will hurt thousands of defense programs, and damage military recruiting just as it is beginning to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Asking the department to compete with (China), let alone manage conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, while under a lengthy CR, ties our hands behind our back while expecting us to be agile and to accelerate progress,” said Austin in the letter to leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has teed up a vote this week on a bill that would keep the federal government funded^[2] for six more months. The measure aims to garner support from his more conservative GOP members by also requiring states to obtain proof of citizenship^[3], such as a birth certificate or passport, when registering a person to vote.

Congress needs to approve a stop-gap spending bill before the end of the budget year on Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown just a few weeks before voters go to the polls and elect the next president^[4].

Austin said the stop-gap measure would cut defense spending by more than $6 billion compared to the 2025 spending proposal. And it would take money from key new priorities while overfunding programs that no longer need it.

Under a continuing resolution, new projects or programs can't be started. Austin said that passing the temporary bill would stall more than $4.3 billion in research and development projects and delay 135 new military housing and construction projects totaling nearly $10 billion.

It also would slow progress on a number of key nuclear, ship-building, high-tech drone and other weapons programs. Many of those projects are in an array of congressional districts, and could also have an impact on local residents and jobs.

Since the bill would not fund legally required pay raises for troops and civilians, the department would have to find other cuts to offset them. Those cuts could halt enlistment bonuses, delay training for National Guard and Reserve forces, limit flying hours and other training for active-duty troops and impede the replacement of weapons and other equipment that has been pulled from Pentagon stocks and sent to Ukraine.

Going forward with the continuing resolution, said Austin, will “subject service members and their families to unnecessary stress, empower our adversaries, misalign billions of dollars, damage our readiness, and impede our ability to react to emergent events.”

Noting that there have been 48 continuing resolutions during 14 of the last 15 fiscal years — for a total of nearly 1,800 days — Austin said Congress must break the pattern of inaction because the U.S. military can't compete with China “with our hands tied behind our back every fiscal year.”

Johnson's bill is not expected to get support in the Democratic-controlled Senate, if it even makes it that far. But Congress will have to pass some type of temporary measure by Sept. 30 in order to avoid a shutdown.