Probably you heard about this already, but on Wednesday evening, the House of Representatives "voted 250 to 175 to repeal the 17-year Defense Department law that bars gays and lesbians from serving openly in uniform."
Of course the hard part is the Senate, but Ed O'Keefe's post makes things sound hopeful; e.g.:
Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced the new bill last week, believing it will earn broader Republican support after the Senate completes consideration of the New START Treaty and government spending. Forty-seven senators, including Reid, are cosponsoring the bill.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said Wednesday she would join Republican colleagues Scott Brown (Mass.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) in voting to end the ban if the Senate votes again on the bill.
The NYT has a complete roll call of the House vote, along with an interactive map, if you like. A quick summary: the 250 votes in favor of repeal came from 235 Democrats and 15 Republicans. The No votes came from 160 Republicans and 15 Democrats. Five Democrats and four Republicans did not vote.
No comments:
Post a Comment