Hey everybody, welcome to Left Right and Center.

I'm David Green your host.

It is good to be back after a few weeks off.

And I want to start today with a boss who is having some serious trouble filling job vacancies.

And we are talking about President Joe Biden.

The country's leading agency on public health research has been without a leader since

late spring.

In May, President Biden nominated Monica Barton-Joli to head the National Institutes of Health.

And this was expected to be a pretty quick confirmation, but it's been blocked by two notable

names Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Senator Sanders, who is chair of the Senate Committee on Health Education and Labor, has

vowed to oppose this confirmation, actually the confirmation of any health nominees until

the president takes more action to cut drug prices.

Senator Warren for her part says she's not going to support confirmation without a promise

from Dr. Barton-Joli to avoid working for or with drug companies for four years after

her term with the NIH is over.

Now the military is facing a similar problem, though at a much more massive scale.

Hundreds of nominations for generals, admirals, high ranking positions, including the chairman

of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are on pause for one man, Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.

Tuberville is objecting to a Pentagon policy that allows service members to receive time

off and reimbursement if they have to travel out of state to seek an abortion.

This policy was instituted after the Supreme Court's decision to overturn access to abortion

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