According to many reports floating around today, there was a compromise measure on Don't Ask, Don't Tell that was floating around today about DADT.
It's now officially endorsed by the WH and looks like it will be attached to the defense authorization act.
DADT Repeal on Track
Congress appears poised to repeal the ban on gays in the military, with the quiet support of the White House and without opposition from the Pentagon, according to statements out from gay rights groups this evening.
The repeal is a careful dance: The Pentagon has remained publicly neutral in the process, while the Administration weighed in in a low-key, wonky, two-paragraph letter to Congress that makes no reference to the moral case for repeal. It is signed not by President Obama but by Budget Director Peter Orszag.
The effect of the public relations moves is to put the credit or blame for repeal on Congress and a group led by Senators Carl Levin and Joe Lieberman and Rep. Patrick Murphy. But the practical effect is the same: A military that, some time next year, will likely begin to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly.
For behind the scene information, Gates had made a deal with the administration shortly after Brown won in MA., when hopes for all further legislation was pretty much in doubt. That was the review that he authorized. This specifically changes that review. Here's the details of the compromise:
WashingtonPost and Dadt Repeal
Under the compromise, worked out in a series of meetings Monday at the White House and on Capitol Hill, lawmakers will proceed to repeal the Clinton-era policy in the next several days, but that action will not go into effect until the Pentagon completes a study about implementing the repeal.
In a letter to lawmakers pushing for a repeal, the White House wrote Monday that "such an approach recognizes the critical need to allow our military and their families the full opportunity to inform and shape the implementation process through a thorough understanding of their concerns, insights and suggestions."
Gay rights advocates hailed the White House decision as a "dramatic breakthrough" that they predicted would dismantle the policy once and for all.
Good news all around.