FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 17, 2010
HRC: Fred Sainz | fred.sainz@hrc.org |
SLDN: Trevor Thomas | trevor@sldn.org |
CAP Action Fund: Winnie Stachelberg | wstachelberg@americanprogress.org |
WASHINGTON – Key Senate leadership and Administration officials this evening met with representatives of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), and the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF). The officials told the groups that Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama are committed to moving forward on repeal by bringing the National Defense Authorization Act – the bill to which “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal is attached – to the floor in the lame duck session after the Thanksgiving recess. Further the Majority Leader and the President made clear their opposition to removing the DADT provision from the NDAA. Information on the exact timing and procedural conditions will be announced by the Majority Leader’s office.
Present at the meeting with representatives from HRC, SLDN and CAPAF were: Jim Messina, Deputy White House Chief of Staff; Phil Schiliro, White House Director of Legislative Affairs; Chris Kang, Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs; Brian Bond, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; David Krone, Chief of Staff to Majority Leader Reid; and Serena Hoy, Senior Counsel to Majority Leader Reid.
# # #
From the Advocate:
Reid Commits to DADT Vote
Democratic majority leader Harry Reid and the White House have committed to bringing the National Defense Authorization Act with “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal attached up for a vote before the end of the year, according to a statement from the Human Rights Campaign.
“Key Senate leadership and Administration officials this evening met with representatives of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), and the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF),” reads the statement. “The officials told the groups that Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama are committed to moving forward on repeal by bringing the National Defense Authorization Act — the bill to which 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' repeal is attached — to the floor in the lame-duck session after the Thanksgiving recess.”
The meeting included Jim Messina, deputy White House chief of staff; Phil Schiliro, White House director of legislative affairs; Chris Kang, special assistant to the president for legislative affairs; Brian Bond, deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; David Krone, chief of staff to Majority Leader Reid; and Serena Hoy, senior counsel to Reid.
No further details were immediately available on the amendment structure under which the bill would be brought up for a vote. Republicans mounted a successful filibuster to moving to debate the defense legislation in September after they complained that they were not going to be given a fair shake at adding their own amendments once it reached the floor.
Some Democratic senators have not only urged a vote on the bill during the lame-duck session but have also called for an open amendment process this time around.
“If the sticking point is that the Republicans want an opportunity to offer amendments and they feel like they weren’t given that opportunity before the election, I have no problem with a more open amendment process,” Colorado senator Mark Udall, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Advocate.
Udall added that there might be less hesitation about an open process now that the election is over.
“There were concerns on both sides that there would be message amendments and amendments to make one party or the other look bad because the election was looming,” he said. “It seems like we could move beyond that and we could really focus on policy debates.”
The pledge came on the heels of news Wednesday afternoon that President Barack Obama called Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to urge passage of the bill during the lame-duck.
"Today, President Obama called Chairman Levin to reiterate his commitment on keeping the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell' in the National Defense Authorization Act, and the need for the Senate to pass this legislation during the lame duck,” said White House spokesman Shin Inouye.
Inouye added that White House aides have been conducting outreach over the past week to “dozens of senators from both sides of the aisle on this issue.”
Earlier in the day, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that passing the defense authorization bill before the end of the year is still a priority for the president.
“The president believes that this can be done in a way and should be done, as you heard Secretary Gates and others say, in the next few weeks,” Gibbs said. “We ought to bring up and we ought to put this — we ought to keep this in the defense authorization bill. We ought to pass this in the defense authorization bill. And we ought to end the policy that the courts are rapidly getting close to ending on a timetable that those in the bureaucracy might not find as much to their liking.”
Gibbs's comments also mirrored those of Defense secretary Robert Gates last week.
This story is still developing ...
No comments:
Post a Comment