The Senate on Saturday agreed to repeal the ban on gays serving openly in the military, handing Democrats and President Obama one of the biggest political victories of the 111th Congress and his presidency. Lawmakers voted 65-31 to end the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, marking a milestone for gay rights in Congress by ending a ban that, since 1993, forced more than 13,500 people out of the military solely because of their sexual orientation.
In a separate vote, the Senate blocked a bill, also sought by Obama, that would have provided a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants.
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The bill repealing “Don’t ask” now heads to the president’s desk. Once it becomes law, the president and the Pentagon must certify that the repeal can be implemented. After that occurs, the new policy allowing gays to serve openly would become effective in 60 days.
Passage of the repeal was all but assured earlier in the day after the Senate voted 63-33 to end debate on legislation, thwarting a Republican filibuster with the help of six GOP senators: Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, George Voinovich of Ohio, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
“This is one of those moments in our history when we stepped up and squared our policies with the values this nation was founded upon,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., proclaimed after the vote.
Once staunchly opposed by most Republicans, the momentum to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” has grown in the GOP, in part because a Pentagon report issued earlier this month suggested the ban could be repealed with little disruption. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullins, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also pushed for the ban to be lifted.
Among the wavering Democrats who ultimately decided to back the repeal was Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, a former Secretary of the Navy and Marine who served in the Vietnam War.
Webb said his decision hinged on whether allowing gays to serve openly would hurt small unit cohesion. Webb said he was assured in a letter from Gates that the policy could be implemented in sequence for different units of the military, rather than all at once.
“With this understanding and with the notion that we need to be putting a policy into place that allows an open way of living among people who have different points of view, I’m going to support this legislation,” Webb said.
Republicans who opposed the bill found no reassurance in Gates’ letter.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., led the charge to block the repeal and said allowing gays to serve openly would compromise the safety of combat troops by damaging cohesion.
Just hours before ending the military ban on gays, lawmakers defeated another measure, the Dream Act, which would have allowed illegal immigrants under the age of 30 who came to the United States as children to gain citizenship if they attended two years of college or joined the military.
The Senate voted 55-41 to end debate on the bill, five votes short of the 60 needed to stave off a Republican filibuster.
The defeat likely marks the end of any chance to reconsider the Dream Act for at least two years, since Republicans, who mostly oppose the legislation, will take control of the House and expand their presence in the Senate in January.
