Advocates for repealing the military ban on openly gay troops say they’re working hard to make sure the Senate passes a defense authorization bill with the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal language intact.
The Senate Armed Services committee passed the National Defense Authorization Act with the amendment attached, so it will take 60 votes in the Senate to strip out the language. While a filibuster of the overall bill seems unlikely, there may still be efforts to weaken the portion about the ban.
Among the groups working on the effort, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is targeting lawmakers such as Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, the only Democrat to vote against repeal in the Armed Services Committee. Log Cabin Republicans is also lining up private assurances from GOP senators that they will not join a filibuster, according to the Advocate.
Meanwhile The Hill newspaper, which serves Capitol Hill, named SLDN’s executive director, Aubrey Sarvis (pictured), to its list of top lobbyists for 2010, saying:
As SLDN’s executive director, Sarvis is tirelessly fighting to see the military’s gay ban repealed this year. He navigates Congress with clear political acumen to see his organization’s sole goal achieved this year. Sarvis, who served in the Army right out of high school, spent six years as staff director and chief counsel of the Senate Commerce Committee and 14 years at Verizon’s legislative affairs shop.
Photo: Pam Spaulding