Washington, D.C.–Today, the Center for American Progress Action Fund issued the following statement:
"The Center for American Progress Action Fund applauds today’s 250 to 175 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to repeal DADT (“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”). Today’s vote is a huge step forward in efforts to finally end this costly and discriminatory policy. In fact, compared with the House’s vote earlier this year to repeal DADT, today’s vote saw triple the number of Republicans supporting repeal and a doubled overall margin-of-victory. We are grateful to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Rep. Patrick Murphy, who introduced today’s repeal legislation, and to Speaker Pelosi for her continued work on repeal.
The Senate must now vote to repeal DADT, where there are more than 60 bipartisan votes for repeal. We are grateful to Sens. Joe Lieberman (CT-I) and Susan Collins (ME-R) for their leadership on DADT repeal in the Senate.
We urge leadership there to make this bill a priority in the remaining days of the current session. Defense Secretary Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mullen have both urged Congress to repeal DADT before Congress adjourns so that the military rather than the courts can implement repeal."
###