Sen. Carl Levin (D-Michigan), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is negotiating with Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) over withdrawal of an amendment that would repeal the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy from this year’s defense authorization bill. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and John McCain of Arizona, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, are in talks on stripping the proposed repeal and other controversial provisions from a broader defense bill, leaving the repeal with no legislative vehicle to carry it. With a repeal attached, and amid Republican complaints over the terms of the debate, the defense bill had failed to win the 60 votes needed to overcome a procedural hurdle in the Senate in September.
A spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, who opposes the repeal, confirmed he is in talks with Mr. Levin on how to proceed on the defense bill but didn’t provide details.
The Journal says that with the Republican takeover of the U.S. House and narrowing the Democratic control of the Senate, the movement to change the military’s policy against allowing gays to serve openly in the nation’s armed forces is all but dead.