Expect Senate DADT votes in September

Chris Johnson from the Washington Blade interviewed the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee about the prospects for moving forward with the Defense Authorization bill, which includes the DADT repeal compromise. July is out. It's looking like that Defense bill will hit the floor in September:

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told the Blade on Thursday he’s expecting the full Senate to take up “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal in September after lawmakers return from August recess.

Advocates have been anticipating a vote on the fiscal year 2011 defense authorization bill — the vehicle to which repeal language is attached — after the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 27 attached the provision to the bill and reported out the legislation to the floor.

Levin has been a driving force behind moving the DADT repeal this year -- even in the face of opposition from the Obama administration.

There are still questions about what opponents of repeal will do to stop the legislation:

In addition to wanting to move forward with the defense legislation, proponents of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal have expressed concern about opponents of the language filibustering the defense legislation as a whole, or stripping out the provision with a substitute amendment or a motion to strike.

Levin said he doesn’t think either a filibuster or an amendment would succeed, but added the odds of a successful amendment passing the Senate may “depend on what the wording is.”

That last line is worrisome. We've been hearing that one possible amendment would add the four service chiefs to the already way too complicated certification language. You'll remember that certification deal, which puts the Secretary of Defense and the Chair of the Joint Chiefs on equal footing with their boss, the President, was concocted by CAP's Winnie Stachelberg. She was very public in claiming credit for the compromise. There's a real concern that an amendment like that could pass in the Senate, especially right before an election. We'll be told that it's innocuous. But, it's not. The real intent is to have different DADT language in the House and Senate bills. So, when it gets to the House and Senate conference, the DADT language can be debated. Three of the "Big Four" in that conference, Ranking Republican on Senate Armed Services John McCain, House Armed Service Chair Ike Skelton and House Ranking Member Bud McKeon, oppose repeal. Only Levin is on our side.

SLDN has called this a potential "killer" amendment. We'll need the help of the White House to kill it. At the LGBT Summit earlier this month, Melody Barnes told me that is something the President wouldn't support. But, she didn't say he'd oppose it. CAP's Winnie Stachelberg better be thinking up a lobbying strategy, too. She crafted the language that's made the bill vulnerable.

We're far from ending DADT. September is going to be another critical month.