Last Thursday, as Americans were preparing to observe Memorial Day and honor our fallen brave men and women, the U.S. House of Representatives chose to play politics with the military.
In short, this year’s Defense Authorization bill had poison attached to it—a repeal of the military’s longstanding “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Despite objections from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines’ service chiefs, the House’s Democratic majority rammed this repeal through, and it passed 229 to 186. The chiefs wanted Congress to delay voting on the issue until the Pentagon could complete a review of how the military would implement the changes. Apparently this reasonable request was too much to ask.
The repeal is expected to go to a full vote in the Senate in a couple of weeks, so we’ll see then if common-sense wins the day. In the meantime, here is how Arkansas’ four congressmen voted on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”:
Rep. Marion Berry, 1st District – No
Rep. Vic Snyder, 2nd District – Yes
Rep. John Boozman, 3rd District – No
Rep. Mike Ross, 4th District – No
As we wait to see what the Senate decides, please check out our blog post entitled “In Defense of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” by clicking here. You’ll get to read about our main objections to the repeal and why we believe this policy should remain part of military law.