Congress to Vote on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Compromise

President Obama approved a compromise to the proposed repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy.   See Obama Backs Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Compromise, Washington Post, May 25, 2010 and also Yahoo News article. The compromise would require that the policy can not be repealed until a Defense Department study on the impact to the troops is completed in December.    If the compromise is passed by Congress,  the repeal will only happen once President Obama, the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs certify that the repeal will not harm military readiness.   The compromise was proposed by three legislators in this  letter to President Obama.

Top Democratic lawmakers aim for the repeal to be included as an amendment to the Defense Spending Bill, H.R.5136 , S.3280 .   There are also  bills pending in Congress concerning a repeal:  S. 3065 and H.R. 1283 and H.R. 4902.  Pending bills can be found on Thomas.gov.   The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is currently codified in 10 USC 654.