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Defunding Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Enforcement- A Stake Through The Heart Of The Law

02/10/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Why propose a freeze on funding for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell funding? Well, despite the optimism that comes with the push from Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mullen, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is not a done deal. Even if it does pass Congress, it is not necessarily a fast solution as it may take time for the Military Readiness Enhancement Act to go into full effect. In many ways, what Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is proposing is a back up plan. This is a plan intended to end DADT even if the MREA does not pass, but it is also something else.

The Federal Budget is rife with dead end funding. Believe it or not, there are commissions, agencies, panels and programs which are funded by the Federal Government without having any law to back their existence. Those programs often had laws which created and backed their authority, but those laws are no longer in force. The funding for them still is. That might seem like an oddity, but the reality is that this happens all the time. In the 1990′s, President Bill Clinton tightened the budget by doing away with things like the Tea Board, which was created at the inception of this country to monitor the quality of tea coming into this nation. The Tea Board was no longer necessary, but it got funding because it had always gotten funding. The United States Military Budget was still paying for inspectors to look over the quality of cotton and wool used in uniforms despite the fact that the United States Military uniforms are no longer made using these materials and had not been for over thirty years.

It might seem like a strange thing for Senator Gillibrand to do and to do so publicly. On the one hand, she is stripping from the Defense Budget, also known as the Defense Authorization Bill or Defense Reauthorization Bill, the funding of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell enforcement largely because it does two things. It does no harm by defunding the enforcement mechanism given that the MREA may be passed and thus saving the Federal government money, but it also does a lot of good if the MREA does not manage to get the votes to get into the Defense Budget and the mechanism is then defunded and defunct. One way in which Congress will operate at times is to create a law and provide no money for enforcement.

Senator Gillibrand has been an ally of the LGBT Community. Her views have changed over the years, but she also has a record of working hard to get LGBT issues passed. She has indicated a strong belief now that the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act is the right thing to do, and she has been vocally for repealing DADT. She tried unsuccessfully to get this defunding amendment passed last year. She is a Senate co-sponsor of the MREA. Since moving to the Senate, Kirsten Gillibrand has been pushing for many LGBT issues. Unlike former Congressman Harold Ford Jr., Senator Gillibrand has not been asking the LGBT Community to simply trust that she has changed her views. She has pushed for changes in the laws so that LGBT Americans can be equal in this nation.

The Defense Authorization Bill, or Defense Budget, will be for next year, and will likely not pass Congress until sometime in September.

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