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Levin: No hearings on gay ban until 2010

Promised December congressional hearings into President Barack Obama’s proposed repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on service by gays will be postponed until next year so the Senate Armed Services Committee can concentrate on investigating the Fort Hood shootings, according to the committee chairman.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., in an interview on the C-SPAN Newsmaker program to be broadcast Sunday, said his resolve toward helping repeal the military’s ban on openly serving gays has not changed, but the need to investigate the Nov. 5 shooting at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Center takes priority.

Since a vote on repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” isn’t likely until next year, at the soonest, during considering of the 2011 defense budget, Levin said postponing the hearings is not a delay in changing the policy.

Levin said the key to changing the policy is a “careful review” of military attitudes about gays and what it would take for the military to accept the change. Levin said his conversations with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, lead him to believe such a review is underway.

“This time is not being lost,” he said of postponing hearings until next year.

The House Armed Services Committee also plans to have a series of hearings about the Obama proposal to lift the Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and the long-standing ban on open service by gays, but it has not announced any dates. Committee aides, speaking on the condition of not being identified, said they did not expect any House hearings to be held until next year, especially not if the Senate is delaying.

The likely vehicle for changing the policy would be an amendment to the 2011 defense authorization act, which would be next year’s version of an annual defense policy bill. Levin said he did not know if an attempt would be made to attach a repeal to that bill or to another bill.

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