[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 16038]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I want to say a few things on the vote we 
will have at 2:15 p.m. today. The issue that is creating all of the 
attention is a provision that the committee put in the bill dealing 
with don't ask, don't tell. The committee did a good job on that issue. 
What they said is, if the President of the United States and the 
Secretary of Defense, after reviewing the work being done by the 
Pentagon--which will be completed this December--decide it is in the 
best interest of the United States military to do away with that 
policy, that will be the case.
  There are some who are saying this bill that came out of the 
committee repeals don't ask, don't tell. That is not the fact. It is 
not repealed in the bill. It simply says, I repeat, if the Defense 
Department, with the Secretary of the Defense and the President, 
certifies it will have no negative effect on the military after 
studying the Pentagon's work, then they can move forward on that and, 
in effect, repeal that policy. But it is not in this bill.
  Anyway, the point is, we are going to have that vote at 2:15 p.m., 
and I will discuss with the Republican leader later today what we are 
going to do if there are amendments that are going to be offered on 
that. I have said some of the things I am interested in doing on that 
bill. I am not here in any way suggesting that people aren't being 
accurate in their depiction of this bill. I just want to make sure that 
people understand what the facts are on this bill, and I think the 
Armed Services Committee did an extremely good job in committee.

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