(D-PA) Rep. Patrick Murphy's standalone bill to repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell" is getting a vote:
Last May, the House overwhelmingly passed an amendment by Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2011 (HR 5136) to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and has been waiting for the Senate to act. Last week, the Senate failed to move forward on the Defense Authorization bill with the repeal language and as a result, Senators Lieberman and Collins introduced standalone bipartisan legislation to repeal the policy. On the news of a standalone effort last week, Speaker Pelosi responded, “an army of allies stands ready in the House to pass a standalone repeal of the discriminatory policy.”
Today, Rep. Patrick Murphy introduced a standalone bill (H.R. 6520) providing for the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy saying:
The time to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has come. Already, two dozen other nations, including Israel and Great Britain, allow their troops to serve openly with no detriment to unit cohesion. As an Army veteran of the Iraq War, I’m insulted by those who claim that our troops are somehow less professional or mission-capable than the troops of these foreign nations. I’m proud to stand with the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the majority of servicemembers and the American public who all support repeal of this discriminatory policy that harms our national security and military readiness.
Leader Hoyer joined the bill as the lead co-sponsor...read on
The homophobes may win out in the end, but at least there's some fight left. If Lieberman and Collins are serious then there's still a chance:
In the wake of the death of the legislation that would have put an end to Don't Ask Don't Tell in the military, Sen Joe Lieberman, D - CT., and Susan Collins, R - ME., are putting together a stand-alone measure to address the discriminating military policy, and majority leader Sen. Harry Reif, D - NV., has promised to get it to the floor for a vote during this session of Congress.
Lieberman tweeted moments ago, "Senator Reid told me he will bring our free-standing DADT repeal up for a vote before end of session. ... he will 'Rule 14' the free-standing DADT repeal so it skips cmte (committee) and can come directly to the Senate floor."
UPDATE: DADT rule passed 232-180 and now it's on to debate. Also, new polling from the ABC/WaPo once again proves that Americans are in favor of repealing DADT:
Today’s Washington Post/ABC News poll is the latest example of strong support by Americans for a repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ From the poll:
By a 56-point margin, nearly 8 in 10 Americans say that gays and lesbians who publicly disclose their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the military (77 percent — 21 percent).
The findings from this poll mirror earlier data reflecting broad support for repeal—as the Washington Post writes:
That’s little changed from polls over the two years, but represents the highest level of support in a Post-ABC poll. The support also cuts across partisan and ideological lines, with majorities of Democrats, Republicans, independents, liberals, con
servatives and white evangelical Protestants in favor of homosexuals’ serving openly.
