Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) continued blanket hold on nominations and senior promotions “is putting our national security at risk,” Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Army Secretary Christine Wormuth wrote Monday in a joint op-ed in the Washington Post. They said it is also “exacting a personal toll on those who least deserve it.”

Tuberville’s blockade is in protest of a Pentagon policy that provides time off and travel reimbursements for service members who have to leave their state for reproductive care.

The service secretaries wrote that the policy is “critical and necessary to meet our obligations to the force.”

Army photo by Kelly Morris