A DADT Repeal Compromise

JUSTICE

May 26, 2010

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Zaid Jilani, Igor Volsky, and Alex Seitz-Wald

On Monday, advocates of ending the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) policy -- which prohibits gays and lesbians from openly serving in the military -- held two separate meetings (which the Center for American Progress attended) with congressional leaders and White House officials to find a way to meet President Obama's pledge of eliminating the ban before the end of the year. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen both endorsed the President's pledge in February, but remained cool to Democratic efforts to attach repeal legislation as an amendment to this year's defense authorization bill. Gates insisted that a Defense Department review of the policy should precede any Congressional efforts to repeal the ban. "I believe in the strongest possible terms that the Department must, prior to any legislative action, be allowed the opportunity to conduct a thorough, objective, and systematic assessment of the impact of such a policy change," Gates wrote in a letter to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) late last month. "I strongly oppose any legislation that seeks to change this policy prior to the completion of this vital assessment process." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), along with chief repeal sponsor Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) -- an Iraq war veteran -- believed they could muster enough votes to pass repeal in the House, but the real challenge lies in the Senate Armed Services Committee, where Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) will need to sway enough  lawmakers to successfully attach repeal as an amendment. Advocacy groups like Servicemembers United, Human Rights Campaign, and CAP have been lobbying moderate members and the White House to support a strategy that would repeal the ban this year but delay implementation until after the Defense Department's review. The White House remained mum on the proposal until earlier this week. As the Advocate's Kerry Eleveld reports, "the White House and Gates seemingly didn't want a vote this year. Activists wouldn't let up. Murphy, Levin, and Lieberman put in a heroic effort to salvage repeal" as did Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and by Monday night, just days before the critical vote, the White House endorsed the strategy.

THE COMPROMISE: Under the proposal, Congress would repeal the statute this year, but the current military policy would remain in place until Obama, the Defense Secretary, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certified that repeal is "consistent with the military's standards of readiness, effectiveness, unit cohesion and recruitment and retention." As the text of the amendment states, "Section 654 of title 10, United States Code, shall remain in effect [the DADT section] until such time that all of the requirements and certifications required by subsection (b) are met. If these requirements and certifications are not met, section 654 of title 10, United States Code, shall remain in effect." CAP Action Fund provided the draft certification language, and we are very pleased to see it adopted as part of the amendment that will be considered this week. The language would not be replaced by a nondiscrimination policy, however, as some repeal advocates had hoped. On Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee will vote on an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill, sponsored by Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and supported by Levin to repeal DADT. Murphy has offered an identical amendment, which will likely come to the floor for a vote tomorrow. The real challenge rests in the Senate, where Levin has remained cautiously optimistic about the amendment's prospects in the Senate Armed Services Committee. While Susan Collins (R-ME), Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) have gone on record as supporting the measure, Scott Brown (R-MA) -- an early target of repeal advocates -- has signaled that he would vote against the measure. If the amendment passes in committee, it would require 60 votes to strip repeal from the bill during the floor debate. The Defense Authorization bill is expected to pass both Houses and be signed by the President by late summer or early fall.

ALL DEMANDS MET: Despite initially saying that he would re-consider the ban if military leaders suggested that it was ineffective, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) attacked the proposed compromise. McCain told a local Arizona radio station that "he welcomed a review of the military's prohibition on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers," but said that Democrats are "going to try to jam that through without even trying to figure out what the impact on battle effectiveness would be." Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) has said that "there is no question that a review of the policy is necessary and important. I see no reason for the political process to pre-empt it." Brown issued a similar statement, calling repeal "premature." "The Pentagon is still in the midst of its study of the matter, and its report is due in December," Brown said. "I am keeping an open mind, but I do not support moving ahead until I am able to finish my review, the Pentagon completes its study, and we can be assured that a new policy can be implemented without jeopardizing the mission of our military." But the Republican opposition is peculiar, since the compromise struck between the White House, Congress, and repeal advocates already meets their demands. The policy doesn't actually change before "the Pentagon completes its study," and officials are "assured that a new policy can be implemented without" jeopardizing military effectiveness. In fact, Gates and Mullen -- who shares these concerns -- has even issued a statement in support of the compromise. "Secretary Gates continues to believe that ideally the DOD review should be completed before there is any legislation to repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell law," Gates' spokesman Geoff Morrell emailed journalists this morning. "With Congress having indicated that is not possible, the Secretary can accept the language in the proposed amendment," he said. Mullen spokesman Capt. John Kirby also told Stars and Stripes said that "the chairman supports the agreement brokered Monday."

REPEAL IS POPULAR: Yesterday, just hours after the White House announced its support for the compromise, a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey found that "78 percent of the public supports allowing openly gay people to serve in the military, with one in five opposed." "Support is widespread, even among Republicans. Nearly six in ten Republicans favor allowing openly gay individuals to serve in the military," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "There is a gender gap, with 85 percent of women and 71 percent of men favoring the change, but support remains high among both groups." In fact, even service members have indicated that they have no problems serving alongside openly gay and lesbian soldiers. According to a recent Vet Voice Foundation poll, for instance, 73 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans said it is "personally acceptable to them if gay and lesbian people were allowed to serve openly in the military." Similarly, an earlier poll conducted by Zogby also concluded that 73 percent of military members are comfortable with lesbians and gays. Many former veterans who are now in Congress also support the measure. As Murphy said yesterday on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, "I like to point out the fact that of my class, the class of 2006 in the Congress, we had the highest ranking military officer ever to serve in a Congress, Admiral Joe Sestak, in favor of repeal; the highest ranking enlisted man ever to serve in the Congress, Command Sergeant Major Tim Walz, for repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell."