Senate Republicans Block DADT Repeal

The U.S. Senate failed on Thursday to move forward a repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."  

The procedural vote was 57-40. Sixty votes were needed to move forward on the bill. 

Though Maine senator Susan Collins voted to support moving forward the National Defense Authorization Act, of which DADT repeal is a component, many senators crucial to repeal voted No, including senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and Olympia Snowe of Maine.

On Wednesday evening, Senate majority leader Harry Reid had postponed a full vote in the Senate on the bill that includes language to repeal the military's ban on openly gay and lesbian troops. The postponement came after an afternoon of negotiations where independent Sen. Joe Lieberman served as a de facto intermediary between Sen. Reid and Republican senator Susan Collins, who supports the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" but wants a "fair and open" process for the Defense Authorization spending bill, which contains the DADT repeal provision.

Collins declared, before the postponement, that she would not vote to bring the bill to the Senate floor if it were scheduled to take place Wednesday night, as earlier reports had indicated. Instead, the senator from Maine said Republicans would block the legislation until Congress formally addresses whether to extend the Bush-era tax cuts.

"It's a vitally important bill, and I just do not understand why we cannot proceed along a path that will bring us to success," Collins said moments before the roll call vote. "I am willing to be one of those 60 votes. I thought we were extremely close, to getting a reasonable agreement yesterday." She added that she was "perplexed" as to why the vote has become held up in political bargaining.

Story developing.

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