As part of an amendment to the Defense spending bill, the House of Representatives tonight voted to repeal don't ask, don't tell. For those unfamiliar, the policy has been in effect since 1993 barring openly gay men and lesbians from serving in the military. The bill says that the policy would be repealed after the Department of Defense review is complete on December 1. Republicans have threatened to filibuster the Defense spending bill over the issue, but this is a step in the right direction. The bill passed by a vote of 234 YEA, 194 NEA with 10 NV. We'll have how the members of our delegation voted once it becomes available.
Update by Hopeful: Here is the Roll Call vote. All NJ Democrats voted yes and all NJ Republicans voted no.
Congressman Scott Garrett appeared yesterday on the Brian Lehrer show. They played a clip of President Obama talking about how the focus should be on jobs and small businesses. Garrett said he does not support the $30 million being repaid from TARP funds going to small businesses. He said it's not designed as a slush fund for any goals the administration comes up with. He said if it wasn't from TARP to spend $30 million for a targeted program to hire new employees, he couldn't support that type of program either because you're picking winners and losers.
Garrett said lets just cut corporate taxes across the board and let them make decisions on what to do. Lehrer asked if Garrett was aware SEC allowed the 5 big investment banks to double their leverage ratios and take on increased risk because he was on the committee at the time in 2004. Garrett said he wasn't sure, but would check and that even if they knew, they were focused on other things.
On Don't ask don't tell, Garrett called it a side issue. He said it would not be one of his priorities and he wouldn't be signing onto a bill because it doesn't need to be addressed at this point. Even if the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Defense Secretary and Chairman of Marines say it can be done, he would probably still vote against it.
Finally, they got to the GOP retreat. Garrett bemoaned the fact that they are being called the party of no because he gave them proposals. He said they have had ideas, the President just thinks they are bad and that the exchange at the retreat was really just an acknowledgement that the GOP has ideas.
