Don't Ask, Don't Tell to Get Senate Hearing

Late last week, the Senate passed the Defense Authorization bill that sets the Pentagon's budget and key policies for the year. It authorized $680 billion for the military in 2010, stopped production of the F-22 fighter jet, increased the size of the Army by 30,000 troops, and included hundreds of measures affecting the armed services.

One measure it did not include was an amendment to stop for 18 months all Pentagon investigations and discharges under Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the policy passed by Congress in 1993 that bans openly gay service members from serving in the armed forces.

Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) confirmed to Politics Daily that she was working to add the moratorium to the bill. Her spokesman, Matt Canter, said later that the senator did not find enough support among her colleagues to move forward on the proposal without the threat of a filibuster.

Today, Gillibrand's office announced that the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on Don't Ask, Don't Tell for the first time in 15 years. A spokesperson for the committee said the hearing will be scheduled in the fall, but that no other details are available.

Movement on the issue has been slow this year, considering the high-profile support it has garnered in the past.

Lifting the ban on gays in the military was a key campaign promise in 2008 from then-candidate Barack Obama. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi both support lifting the ban. And as of Monday, Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Penn.), an Iraq War veteran, has secured 164 co-sponsors for his bill to fully repeal 1993 law, according to Murphy's staff.