New bill seeks to slow DADT repeal - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

New bill seeks to slow DADT repeal

A key lawmaker seeks to slow the repeal of the military’s ban on openly gay troops by getting the services chiefs — who have expressed concerns about how this change might affect combat units — involved in the pre-implementation certification process.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., an Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, is seeking cosponsors for a bill intended to put new speed bumps in the path of allowing openly gay people to serve in the military.

As of Friday, 16 lawmakers — all Republicans — had signed onto the bill, which could be introduced early next week.

The law enacted in December to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” allows the military’s ban on open service by gays to fall as soon as the president, defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs certify that the military is prepared to implement the change without harming morale or readiness.

Hunter’s effort is based on the belief that Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen are “vulnerable to political pressure” to sign off on certification because lifting the ban has been a political goal of President Obama.

The service chiefs — career military officers who in most cases are at the end of their careers — are less susceptible to political pressure and more likely to speak their mind, as shown during a December hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee when the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force chiefs expressed concern about the effect on combat units if gays are allowed to serve openly.

Hunter’s bill, called the Restore Military Readiness Act of 2011, is directly aimed at getting the service chiefs to oppose implementation. The draft bill would mandate that before the ban can be repealed, the service chiefs also would have to certify that changing the policy “will not degrade the readiness, effectiveness, cohesion, and morale of combat arms units and personnel of the Armed Forces under the officer’s jurisdiction engaged in combat, deployed to a combat theater, or preparing for deployment to a combat theater.”

The new implementation restriction would take effect only if it is approved by the House and Senate and signed into law by President Obama — no sure thing, according to congressional sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.