Activists and local politicians held a small rally in Kansas City outside the meeting room where Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO), chair of the House Armed Services committee was speaking. They called on Skelton to hold a hearing on repeal of DADT.
Pitch.com photoThe Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled a special one-hour hearing for Tuesday afternoon at which the top Pentagon officials will lay out their plans for implementing a repeal of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ passed by Congress in 1993.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen will unveil what DOD press secretary Geoff Morell calls an “implementation plan” for repeal, Bloomberg’s Anthony Capaccio reports.
The Senate committee will hold another hearing on DADT in two weeks with an outside panel, ABC News reports. Panelists are still to be determined.
Tuesday’s special meeting with Gates and Mullen was added to a previously scheduled hearing on the military’s proposed 2011 budget.
Morrell told reporters yesterday, “There have been a lot of discussions leading up to this between the president and the secretary, and they’ve been working on an implementation plan and will unveil it” during the hearing, Bloomberg reports.
Mullen’s spokesperson, Capt. John Kirby, said, according to ABC News: “The Chairman and the Chiefs very clearly understand the President’s intent to repeal the law and take very seriously their obligation to give him and the Secretary their best military advice about the impact on the force and potential ways to think through an implementation policy.”
CNN’s Barbara Star offers this extra detail:
Gates and Mullen are not expected to offer a specific legislative proposal to repeal the law, but rather to detail some of the preliminary steps that need to be taken inside the military in advance of formulating a legislative plan.
Gates will discuss options for more “humanely” implementing the current ban, for example, according to a senior Pentagon official.
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