“Don’t Ask- Don’t Tell” repeal makes it past cloture with final Senate vote scheduled for later this weekend.The military ban on gay people serving openly is set for certain repeal Saturday as the Senate voted 63-33 to end debate.
With six Republicans joining Democrats, the Senate approved cloture (cutting off debate) on the bill ending the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which requires gay members of the armed forces to hide their sexual orientation, The New York Times reported.
The Cloture vote requiring 60 votes was passed to officially move the bill to repeal DADT to be offered for a final vote.
Once cloture is reached a final vote on the bill to end DADT , requiring only 51 votes, could come as early as today. The final vote is scheduled for Saturday afternoon after the Republicans waived the right to delay the vote for 30 hours after cloture, talkingpointsmemo.com reported.
The House already passed its version of the standalone DADT repeal which means that if the Senate passes the repeal this weekend it will go straight to the president’s desk for likely signature.
