Bill is blocked on gay troops

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans, joined by Arkansas’ two Democratic senators, blocked a major defense bill Tuesday that opponents said was weighed down with items unrelated to military readiness.

The legislation would have allowed homosexuals to openly serve in the armed forces by repealing the Bill Clinton-era “don’t ask don’t tell” policy.

The vote was 56-43, short of the 60 votes needed for Democrats to shut down a filibuster and proceed to a vote on the actual legislation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada joined Arkansas’ Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor in voting with the Republicans, but Reid’s vote was tactical - by voting “no” he has the ability to call up the bill in the future.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, slammed efforts to repeal “don’t ask don’t tell,” calling them “ ridiculous” and a “bunch of political gamesmanship.”

He said before Congress changes the long-standing law, legislators should wait for input from the military itself.

“I want to hear from people who are actually wearing the uniform,” Graham said.

Added Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona: “We’re in two wars, and now we’re passing the social agenda of the Democrat Party,” rather than focusing on battle readiness.

Democrats said that by blocking a vote on the defense authorization bill, Republicans had denied critical benefits to members of the armed forces.

“We need to support the troops,” said Michigan Democrat Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “One can argue there are provisions in this bill which should not be in this bill. Fine. Debate them. Vote on them.”

Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who caucuses with the Democrats, said that since the 1993 “don’t ask don’t tell” policy was adopted, $6 million has been spent training 14,000 service members who were discharged after their sexuality became known.

“We wasted that by tossing them out,” he said. “That’s the equivalent of an entire division of war fighters that we need in places like Afghanistan.”

The underlying bill would give the go-ahead for $726 billion in military programs and would provide soldiers a pay increase.

Although Lincoln voted with the Republicans to block a vote on the bill, she said she favored the language in the bill that would allow homosexuals to serve openly in the military.

“I think it should be repealed, with the input of the military obviously to ensure there’s no compromising to the troops,” she said.

Currently, military leadership is taking a survey of troops’ views on the issue. A report on the potential impact of allowing homosexuals to serve openly is due in December.

The legislation stipulates that the policy would only change if military leaders certified that it is “consistent with the standards of military effectiveness, unit cohesion, and recruiting and retention of the Armed Forces.”

Pryor said he wanted to see the results of the pending surveys.

“Let’s give them some time to sort through this,” he said.

He didn’t answer directly when asked if he supported homosexuals serving openly in the military.

“I don’t want to say I will completely defer to the military leadership,” he responded, “but I’d like to hear from them.”

Both Lincoln and Pryor slammed the legislation as baldly political.

“I’m at the point where I’m saying ‘a pox on both parties,’” Pryor said.

He blamed Democrats for bringing up hot-button issues on a defense bill without setting aside enough time for debate.

And Republicans, he said, “have eaten up so much of the clock” by stalling legislation that there isn’t much time to bring up competing amendments.

Lincoln said she voted against the bill because she had planned to offer eight amendments that would have increased benefits and training for veterans. Democratic leaders used a parliamentary tactic to limit additional amendments from being offered.

“Lets face it, both sides have plenty of guilt here in whatever tactics they’re trying to play,” Lincoln said.

“Republicans want to freeze things up and don’t want to move forward, and Democrats want to get everything done at once.”

The House already voted to abandon “don’t ask don’t tell” on a 234-194 vote in May. U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder, a Little Rock Democrat, was the only member of the Arkansas delegation to support the change.

In addition to repealing the 1993 provision, Democrats had planned on attaching an amendment to the bill that would have provided federal higher-education funding and an eventual path to citizenship to people who immigrated illegally to the United States when they were 15 or younger.

The Defense, Relief, and Education of Alien Minors, or DREAM, Act would have provided a process to gain citizenship for those who completed college or served in the U.S. military.

But Democrats dropped the effort after it became clear that they lacked the votes to force a vote on the underlying defense authorization bill.

Lincoln co-sponsored the DREAM Act measure, but since she and Pryor joined in the Republican filibuster, it is unlikely to receive a vote anytime before the November election.

Pryor said he had no problem with the part of the DREAM Act that would allow people here illegally to gain legal status through military service, but he said funding for higher education is limited.

By allowing aliens access to education funding, “you’re going to be squeezing people out who have been playing by the rules,” he said.

Rep. John Boozman, a Republican who is challenging Lincoln for her seat in the November election, said he would have voted against the bill if it included either the homosexuals in the military or immigration measures.

“These are social issues that don’t have anything to do with our troops,” he said.