Republican defense hawks mounted a fresh challenge of Sen. Tommy Tuberville's (R-AL) military blockade on Wednesday night despite attempts by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) to filibuster their protest on the Senate floor.

The senators, led by Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Joni Ernst (R-IA), took over the chamber shortly after midnight to request voice votes on the hundreds of promotions Tuberville has been delaying over the Pentagon's abortion travel policy.

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The floor challenge began as it did two weeks ago, when the same Republicans, fuming over a blockade they say is harming military readiness, requested votes on 61 separate nominees. Tuberville objected to each one.

Except this time, Lee intervened on Tuberville's behalf, launching into lengthy, winding speeches that stonewalled their efforts to call up individual votes.

Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), standing next to Tuberville in the chamber, attempted to confirm two nominees, but after Lee's second objection, lumped the remaining names into a single request. Sullivan and Ernst gave up on votes altogether, instead reading off the biographies of the officers one by one.

The speeches, which finally concluded after 3 a.m., capped off an already long day for the Senate, which passed a bill to avoid a government shutdown shortly after 11 p.m.

An hour later, Sullivan appeared at his lectern to express his "sadness and frustration" with Tuberville's holds, imploring him to consider alternatives to the blockade, including a lawsuit against the Pentagon. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) seconded the suggestion, arguing a courtroom is the proper place to litigate the policy, which Republicans say violates a federal ban on taxpayer-funded abortions.

Implicit in these pleas is a threat. Senate Democrats need just nine Republicans to vote for what is, in effect, a temporary rules change to circumvent Tuberville's holds. The GOP senators, who support the stand he is taking but not the tactics, have given Tuberville space to land on a possible offramp, but the floor protest represented a reminder that time is running short for him to make a decision.

"I will work with Sen. Tuberville and Lee and anybody else and everybody else to find a solution that's acceptable to them to get us back on track," Graham said from the Senate floor. "But I promise you this: This will be the last holiday this happens. If it takes me to vote to break loose these folks, I will."

Lee, meanwhile, used his floor remarks to lay into the senators for placing blame at Tuberville's feet, saying it is incumbent upon Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to repeal his "godless, lawless abortion travel policy."

Though he would not have chosen to blockade the nominees, Lee said, Tuberville has "chosen a tactic that is legitimate and he has every right to deploy under the rules of the Senate."

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Sullivan and his colleagues went to great lengths to emphasize they are "pro-life" and, like Lee, took issue with Austin but countered that the nominees caught up in Tuberville's holds are innocent bystanders who had nothing to do with the policy he is protesting.

"We need to fix the abortion policy that we all disagree with here," Sullivan said as he prepared to relinquish the floor, "but punishing these 450 members and their families is not the way to go about doing that."