WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday blocked a bid to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gays in the military, a vote likely to doom the effort this year.
The 57-40 vote to cut off a Republican-led filibuster, or extended debate, fell three votes short of what Senate rules require.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, joined 56 Democrats to vote yes, while 39 Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., voted no. Colorado’s senators, both Democrats, voted in favor of advancing the measure.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was thwarted by the objections of some Republicans who oppose lifting the ban while the country is fighting two wars. Other Republican senators felt bound by a pledge to their leaders not to vote on anything unrelated to tax cuts or this year’s budget until those matters are resolved.
While Thursday’s vote wasn’t strictly on the merits of repealing the policy, reconsideration is highly unlikely this year because of limited time and the Senate’s full agenda of tax cuts, government funding, and perhaps the New START nuclear arms treaty. Senators hope to conclude the 111th Congress at the end of next week.
Repeal supporters vowed to keep fighting, citing how close advocates of ending the 17-year-old policy came, and realizing that in the 112th Congress that convenes in January, Republicans will control the House of Representatives and Democrats will have five fewer Senate seats, down to 53.
“I’m willing to stay through the holidays to debate it on the floor,” said Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo.
Reid’s frustration was palpable as he made a last-ditch appeal to colleagues to end the policy.
“I have bent over backwards to find a way to get this bill done,” Reid said. “But it is clear that Republicans — led by a couple of senators who simply do not want to have a vote on repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ — are doing everything they can to stand in the way.”
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said: “The issue is not whether to allow gay people to serve in the military, but whether we ask them to lie. Asking them to lie undermines the core values of our military — honesty, integrity and trust. When those values are undermined anywhere, they are undermined everywhere.”
The repeal was part of a bill to authorize defense spending in fiscal 2010, which began on Oct. 1. The Pentagon has been funded on a stopgap basis so far.
Traditionally, such defense measures win bipartisan approval — for 48 straight years, Congress has approved the legislation.
Not this year. The entire bill is now stalled.
“I am extremely disappointed that yet another filibuster has prevented the Senate from moving forward,” President Barack Obama said. “A minority of senators were willing to block this important legislation largely because they oppose the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ As commander in chief, I have pledged to repeal this discriminatory law. … This law weakens our national security, diminishes our military readiness, and violates fundamental American principles of fairness, integrity and equality.”
The House voted earlier this year to end the ban.
