Nov 13, 2009  |  By: Chris Johnson  | COMMENTS     

The effort to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will likely come next year as an amendment to the Defense Department spending bill, rather than through a standalone bill, according to gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

Frank said in an interview with the Blade that repealing the 1993 law barring gays from serving openly in the military would happen as part of the fiscal year 2011 defense authorization bill.

“The House will take up and the Senate will take up ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal,” he said. “That will again, like hate crimes, even more so, will have to be done, I believe, in the context of the defense authorization. You can’t do the standalone bill. It belongs in the defense authorization.”

Frank said lawmakers would seek to amend the defense measure to include a provision repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Such a move would mimic the way Congress recently enacted the hate crimes measure.

Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) is the sponsor of the standalone version of legislation in the House that would repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” No such legislation exists in the Senate, although Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) has said he’s in talks with the Obama administration on the issue.

Asked about Frank’s prediction for the repeal strategy, Allison Herwitt, legislative director for the Human Rights Campaign, said her organization “always takes its cues from its congressional allies.”

“They’re the ones that write the legislation and obviously [the defense authorization] would be a great bill to have repeal be a part of,” she said. “That’s where it should be.”

David Stacy, HRC’s senior public policy advocate, noted that Congress enacted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 1993 as part of a defense authorization bill, so repealing the law via the same vehicle would mirror the process.

But Kevin Nix, spokesperson for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said while passing a repeal as part of the defense authorization bill is a possibility, his organization is still “looking at all options,” including a standalone bill.

Nix also said SLDN is urging President Obama to include repeal as part of his defense budget request, which is expected to be delivered to Congress early next year.

Whether or not Congress will take up the proposed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal next year was recently brought into question by comments Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), the Senate assistant majority leader, reportedly made to The Hill newspaper.

In a Nov. 4 article, Durbin was indirectly quoted as saying he wasn’t certain whether repeal would be on next year’s agenda. A Senate Democratic aide clarified for the Blade on the condition of anonymity that Durbin was referring to the legislative calendar as a whole, noting that it’s too early to determine whether any particular bill will be on the agenda.

But Frank said it was a “terrible mistake” for Durbin to suggest that overturning “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” wouldn’t happen next year. Frank is among the supporters who have asserted Congress would take up repeal in 2010.

“I think that’s a terrible mistake for him to say that and I believe that it will be a great injustice to wait any longer,” Frank said. “I don’t think he has that option.”

Nix said he was surprised Durbin made the comments — particularly because the lawmaker is the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.

“The signals we are getting is that [a ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal] will be and can be passed in 2010,” Nix said.

Progress on ENDA, DP benefits expected

Action on other pro-LGBT legislation seems more imminent. Frank said Congress could advance the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and a bill providing partner benefits to LGBT federal employees in the near future.

And the prospects for passing the Domestic Partnership Benefits & Obligations Act, he said, are the most promising.

“That one I’m the most confident is going to become law because I think you have Senate support for it — enough to get to the 60” votes needed to overcome a filibuster, Frank said.

Lieberman is sponsor of the Senate version of the legislation while Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the only out lesbian in Congress, is sponsoring the House version of the bill. Baldwin was recently quoted in The Hill as saying she “absolutely” believes there are enough votes to pass the bill in the House.

Frank, who’s sponsoring ENDA in the House, said the bill is “in very good shape” and predicted the House Education & Labor Committee would mark up ENDA before year’s end. He noted that a House floor vote is expected to occur no later than February.

“So I say,” Frank said, “the schedule is the federal domestic partner benefits anytime in the next few months, ENDA out of the House in December or in February with the Senate voting in the spring, [and] ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ part of the military authorization, which means into the summer.”

Herwitt, however, said HRC remains hopeful that a House vote on ENDA could take ...