Brody's Notes... U. S.Defence Secretary Urges DADT Repeal Before New Congress Is Seated

Robert Gates U. S. Defence Department Official Portrait 

By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) NOV 7 | U. S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, speaking to reporters accompanying him on a trip to meet officials in Australia yesterday, said that he hopes Congress will repeal the DADT policy during the upcoming post election session starting on November 15th.

Secretary Gates did not sound optimistic that the current Congress would use the brief 'lameduck' session to get rid of the law telling journalists:

"I would like to see the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" but I'm not sure what the prospects for that are."

Pentagon officials insist that they are ahead of schedule in delivering the survey that was commissioned by the Defence Secretary and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, to gather information on the potential effects of the repeal to servicemembers and their families. Sources in the Pentagon familiar with partial results of the survey and speaking on condition of anonymity, have told reporters that the majority of the armed forces personnel surveyed have stated that "its not a big deal" and would like to see the policy done away with. 

In his press conference last Wednesday after the election, President Obama reiterated his desire to see the policy repealed in keeping with his commitment to have it elminated. The President indicated that there was still time to repeal the ban in December or early January, after the military study is finished.
Political analysts and supporters of the repeal predict with a Republican takeover of the House in January along with a slim majority in the Senate by Democrats, repeal is not likely during the next session of Congress. Some Republican lawmakers, emboldened by the GOP gains, have privately said that they will block any efforts to repeal the policy before January

The Advocate's Senior White House correspondent Kerry Eleveld is reporting that a source close to Michigan Senator Carl Levin (D), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says that Chairman Levin is in preliminary discussions regarding possible changes in the must pass Defence Authorisation legislation, stripping it of the DADT repeal amendment. Eleveld reports:

 “Levin is making calls under the premise – we can’t afford to waste time on a controversial provision, so we’ll strip out the controversial provision and be able to get the bill on and off the floor in the available amount of time,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “This is another in a long series of cases where Democrats are capitulating to the Republicans,” that person told Eleveld.

In an interview with Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, Sarvis told The Advocate:

"In that scenario my fear is that the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ provision could be stripped out, Levin doesn’t want to be the first committee chairman (in half a century) not to see an NDAA pass.”