The effort to repeal the military’s ban on openly gay servicemembers was dealt another setback Thursday in the Senate, as a motion to bring the defense bill to which it was attached up for a vote failed.
The cloture motion, offered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), garnered 57 votes, three shy of the number needed to break the pledged Republican filibuster.
Shortly after the vote, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) pledged to introduce the repeal legislation as a stand-alone bill, which they did on Friday, along with cosponsors Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.)and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). The measure was sent to the Senate Armed Services Committee, although Lieberman has said the he has received assurances from Reid that the bill will go directly to the full Senate for a vote before the end of the lame-duck session.
The Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony from leaders from all branches of the military last week on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” who weighed in on the recent Pentagon study that found little harm in repealing the ban on openly gay servicemembers.
The hearings, held Dec. 2 and 3, solicited testimony from all of the heads of the respective branches, as well as Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen.
Throughout the two-day proceedings, the military leaders offered split opinions on whether the ban should be lifted summarily, with the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard voicing support for repealing the ban and the leaders of the Marines, Army and Air Force expressing varying concerns.
Earlier last week, the Pentagon released its year-long study that evaluated the possible risks to military preparedness that openly gay servicemembers could pose and examined the attitudes of servicemembers toward the repeal of the 1993 law. The study found that a majority of servicemembers did not think lifting the ban would have an impact on military operations and concluded that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” could be repealed without damaging the military.
The Army chief of staff, Gen. George Casey, said during the hearing he didn’t think the Army was ready for a change while two wars were being waged, but did remark that the study changed his mind on his previously held notion that openly gay servicemembers would be a detrimental distraction to unit cohesion.
Marine Corps commandant Gen. James Amos noted that his branch of the military offered the most negative views toward repeal in the Pentagon survey and that he did not think that such a change should be implemented, while Air Force chief of staff Gen. Norton Schwartz advocated for full repeal to be held off until 2012, as the military undertook an education initiative to prepare for the change.
Both Gates and Mullen testified last Thursday that repeal should happen immediately, before the end of the current Congressional lame-duck session.
“I believe this has become a matter of some urgency because, as we have seen this past year, the judicial branch is becoming involved in this issue and it is only a matter of time before the federal courts are drawn once more into the fray,” Gates testified, referring to the recent court decision that ruled the ban unconstitutional. The federal government is currently appealing the decision.
In his testimony, Mullen rejected claims the military cannot handle the repeal during wartime.
“I find the argument that war is not the time to change to be antithetical with our own experience since 2001,” Mullen said. “War does not stifle change, it demands it. It does not make change harder, it facilitates it.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking minority member on the committee, continued to oppose repeal through both days of the hearing, although he remarked previously he would follow military leadership and the results of the Pentagon study.