Update: Developments in the House Today
Two days ago, I blogged about several new amendments threatening LGBT equality in the military, and there are some developments in the House to report.
Yesterday evening, the House voted on the amendment proposed by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), which bars federal funding in the House Defense Appropriations bill for 2012 from being used “in contravention” of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). This amendment passed the House by a vote of 248-175. To see how your representative voted, click here.
And just this morning, the House considered an amendment by Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), which prohibits funds from being used for Tier I “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) repeal training for military chaplains. This harmful amendment seeks to micromanage the military’s training plan, and Rep. Huelskamp admitted on the House floor that he had only read a summary of the training he was seeking to defund, as opposed to the actual manual.
As Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) pointed out in his opposition to the amendment, “For Congress to interfere with the military processes of chaplaincy training is absurd and unprecedented.” This amendment passed the House by a margin of 236-184. (Roll call of how individual representatives voted is not yet available.)
Both of these unwarranted amendments take a swing at equality in the military, adding extra layers of discrimination into this routine defense appropriations bill. Unfortunately, these harmful amendments were included in the DOD appropriations bill that passed today, by a vote of 331-83.
Repeal opponents in the House continue their efforts to ambush our progress, even as training continues and even in light of this week’s injunction on the enforcement of DADT. Let’s keep our eyes on the prize – prompt certification – and put this confusion over repeal to rest. We will not give up, despite these ongoing battles.
We will have to deal with these amendments in a House/Senate conference later this year.
07-08-11 By Emily Tisch Sussman, SLDN Legislative Co-Director |
2 Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.Bill on July 14, 2011 at 01.53 pm
Good article—but: let’s not deal with amendments until after we get Certification and 60 days. It’s not over until it’s over, and right now the Commander-in-Chief, as well as much of the LGBT community, are accepting endless procrastination. Obama should have ended DADT before Gates left—the longer he waits, the greater the risk that Republicans in Congress will detrail the end of DADT. Irony of ironies will be if DADT dies because of a Republican court case rather than executive leadership.
Michael Magee in San Diego on July 08, 2011 at 02.48 pm
Emily and team…thank you for keeping us up to date on the shenanigans in the House. Clearly, our work is not yet done. We not only must ensure that certification comes sooner rather than later but we also must protect the gains that we have made and most importantly ensure that our brothers and sisters in uniform achieve the equality that they have earned. Keep up the great work.