THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2010
UPDATE @ 9:57 AM: When the Senate convened this morning, Majority Leader Reid made remarks about the upcoming schedule including this on DADT:
Yesterday, The House passed Don't Ask, Don't Tell and we're going to have to deal with that in some way"How about by scheduling a vote and passing it? Seems like a good way to deal with it.
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I've been hearing a lot of the coverage of the DADT vote last night. Reports on NPR and NBC indicate that there may not be time for the Senate to vote. That is not true.
Got this statement via email last night. The Majority Leader stated clearly taht the Senate will take up the DADT bill. But, there's no time for the usual GOP procedural games:
"This week, we have seen clear evidence that an overwhelming majority in Congress supports repeal of the discriminatory 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy. The House of Representatives sent a powerful message with its lopsided vote in favor of repeal. And Senator Snowe joined a growing chorus of Republicans in the Senate who support repeal.The GOP Senators who say they support repeal have to vote for repeal. Time is running out. No doubt, John McCain and Mitch McConnell will use all their tricks to thwart repeal. That can't happen. If we start hearing demands for amendments or a lengthy debate from any of the GOP repeal supporters, that signals trouble. It means McConnell is tightening his grip and wants to run out the clock and prevent an up-or-down vote
"The time for action is now. We plan on considering the stand-alone bill to repeal 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' which was sent over by the House.
"But let me be clear. We are very quickly running out of days in this Congress. The time for week-long negotiations on amendments and requests for days of debate is over. Republican Senators who favor repealing this discriminatory policy need to join with us now to stand against those who are trying to run out the clock on this Congress."
There is time to do the DADT vote. And, the Senate shouldn't go home til it gets done.
Today, Senators will begin debate on the START Treaty. The treaty will get the 67 votes it needs to pass. Then, the Senate moves on to the Omnibus bill. Expect GOPers to play all kinds of games with that legislation, including a demand that the bill be read on the Senate floor. The Omnibus includes the funds to keep the government running (the current funding runs out tomorrow) -- and a whole lot of GOP earmarks.
So, yeah, there's a lot of work to do, but there is time to do the DADT bill. We have until January 3rd if need be.
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