Letter: Repealing DADT

Dear Editor:

On behalf of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), I would like to respond to Bob Roehr’s Year in Review column where Mr. Roehr implied that there had been little or no progress on the bill to repeal the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. I would offer that quite the opposite is true and that substantial momentum was achieved in the long journey to repeal during 2007.

The Military Readiness Enhancement Act (H.R. 1246) was re-introduced by Representative Marty Meehan, D-Mass., early in 2007 with a bipartisan group of 109 original co-sponsors from the previous Congress. Upon Meehan’s retirement from the House, Representative Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., assumed the role of lead sponsor for the bill. Working with Tauscher, SLDN and our allies has implemented a legislative strategy to build support for repeal both inside and out of Congress. To date, 139 bipartisan members of Congress have agreed to co-sponsor HR 1246 and with changes expected in Congress next year, this trend is likely to continue. Congresswoman Susan Davis, D-Calif., who chairs the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, has made it clear that when the appropriate time comes, hearings on the bill will be held. SLDN’s goal and that of our allies is to ensure that we do not have hearings just for the sake of hearings but rather to have a timely and substantive debate that actually moves the bill forward rather than a show for the nightly news.