Home
Politics

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said this morning on the Senate floor that a cloture vote on the 2011 Defense Authorization bill, which includes repeal language for the military’s anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, could be voted on tonight if time allowed, according to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

“And I’m likely going to move to my motion to reconsider on the Defense Authorization Act this evening,” Reid said. “Allowing, as I will indicate at that time, time for amendments to that piece of legislation.”

According to SLDN, Reid is “actively reaching out to his Republican colleagues to reach an agreement on how to proceed.”

Reid: Senate cloture vote on defense bill ‘likely’ tonight, includes ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal

The Georgia Voice Editors
Politics

In September, the Senate failed to move forward on the bill after Republicans blocked the vote due to a disagreement on procedure. Republicans claimed at the time that Democrats were politicizing the defense bill ahead of the 2010 midterm elections.

Republicans, as recently as this weekend, have expressed doubt that the bill would be voted on during the current lame-duck session of Congress. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told David Gregory on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he believed debate on the bill would not come until the 112th Congress, scheduled to convene in January.

Stay tuned for more information as it develops.