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Ladies First- House To Take Up DADT Repeal Legislation First

12/14/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representatives Steny Hoyer and Patrick Murphy are using the waning hours of the lame duck session to push out a ‘privileged’ House Bill that will be a stand alone repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. The bill will still have to pass the Senate with sixty votes, and that is still incumbent upon the Republicans who say that they support repeal actually supporting repeal and cloture. There should be enough Senators to make cloture, but it is still unclear if the Republicans will vote for it.

The need now is to call Representatives to vote for this bill and to begin the process of removing this unconstitutional, discriminatory and unjust law.

The House may vote for the bill as soon as tomorrow with the Senate following soon there after. Currently, there are some forty co-sponsors of the stand alone legislation according to the HRC. Unfortunately, only one Republican- Senator Susan Collins- is on that list.

So far, several Senators including Lisa Murkowski, Olympia Snow, John Ensign, and George Voinavich have all said that they would be willing to repeal DADT after the tax issue was settled, which it largely is.

The story about the framework created by Pelosi, Hoyer and Murphy did show up on ThinkProgress, but that was soon removed, according to Talking Points Memo:

Of course, there’s still the House bill with which to contend. On Monday, ThinkProgress reported that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) will offer their own version of a standalone repeal bill in the House. A House leadership source declined to confirm the story, and it was taken down from ThinkProgress’ website shortly after it posted. Politico reports the story was “published prematurely.”

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has issued the following statement regarding the repeal process:

“We applaud House Speaker Pelosi, Reps. Hoyer and Murphy for their extraordinary leadership in the waning hours of the lame-duck session. Let’s be clear: we’ll still need 60 votes in the Senate. This ‘privileged’ House bill will need to pass the full House and then move to the Senate. While we avoid a cloture vote to proceed and save time on the Senate floor, we’ll still need 60 votes to complete the bill and send it directly to the President’s desk. Repeal supporters need to contact their House member to vote for repeal tomorrow. We also need to keep the pressure on the Senate and not relent. Time remains the enemy and Senators need to complete the bill before leaving for holiday vacation. Get on the phone and help hold the frontline,” said Aubrey Sarvis, Army veteran and executive director for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

STILL AT RISK: “As the U.S. Senate votes on repeal legislation, service members still cannot come out. A general recently approved the separation of an SLDN client serving overseas in the U.S. Air Force. This service member now faces an administrative separation board. If the discharge moves forward, the fate of the service member’s career will ultimately fall to Secretary Michael B. Donley, Dept. of Defense General Counsel Jeh Johnson, and Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel Dr. Clifford L. Stanley.” Warning to service members: www.SLDN.org/StillAtRisk

SLDN FREE HOTLINE: Gay and lesbian service members with questions on repeal are urged to contact the SLDN hotline to speak with a staff attorney: 202-328-3244 x100.