More Info On Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Delays

Here is an update from our friends at Servicemembers Legal Defense Network:

After an exhausting day at mark-up of the national defense bill in the House Armed Services Committee, we have several things to report.

1.       Three anti-DADT repeal amendments were introduced and passed in the mark-up today. (No surprise.) Here is a link to a blog post we wrote yesterday that briefly describes each of them (Hunter, Hartzler, and Akin’s amendments were passed; Palazzo did not introduce his). Here is our statement on their passage today.

2.       The next step for the defense bill is to go to the House floor, where we’ll likely see a vote in the coming weeks. The current amendments in the bill (passed tonight) could stay in it through the full House. The Senate has been seen as the stop-gap up to this point, but of course, if the House passes anti-repeal amendments, then they become issues for conference between the houses. Bottom line: not helpful.

3.       All indications from the Pentagon are that repeal training is still on track despite all of these stirrings. Sec. Gates is slated to leave on 30 June, and will likely want to certify before he departs. We will keep our fingers on the pulse of that progress and keep you in the loop.

Thanks for sticking with us today!! Again, our record of tweets is @FreedomtoServe if you want to go back and see the play-by-play.