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Sen. Susan Collins
Sen. Susan Collins
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, released the below statement Wednesday night on the repeal of “don’t ask don’t tell.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid postponed a vote earlier in the day on the Defense spending bill containing DADT repeal after Collins said she wasn’t ready to move forward. Collins represents the key Republican vote needed to overcome a filibuster of the Defense bill.
“Senator Joe Lieberman and I continue to negotiate in good faith with the Majority Leader to try and come up with a fair process under which the important Defense Authorization bill could be considered in the limited time remaining in this session. Without a fair process, the motion to proceed to the bill would likely fail in the U.S. Senate.
“Senator Lieberman and I requested a meeting with Senator Harry Reid last week during which we outlined a specific plan for allowing debate and amendments similar to how the Senate has considered the authorization bill in the past.
“It wasn’t until 1:35 pm today that I received a legitimate offer from Senator Reid, which I consider a good starting point. We made a counter offer which would provide sufficient time for debate, and includes protections to help ensure that Republicans would be able to offer a limited but fair number of amendments that are relevant to this legislation.
“I am encouraged that the Majority Leader decided to postpone the vote he had scheduled for tonight. I urged him to do this so that we could consider the tax legislation first, which I believe could be on the floor as early as tomorrow and completed quickly. At that point, I believe we could move immediately to the Defense Authorization bill under a fair agreement, and I would vote to do so. I would hope he carefully considers our proposal. I believe we have outlined a very clear path forward for the Majority Leader to take that would allow this very important debate to occur.”
Collins on a massive tax overhaul that we just learned about days ago: “could be on the floor as early as tomorrow and completed quickly.”
Collins on DADT that’s been studied to death, out of committee, and up for a vote for a year: four days of debate and fifteen amendments, one of which will be to strip DADT from the bill.
Same old, same old, Let the repubs add more and more amendments until the bill is so watered down, that the dems get very little of what they wanted and the reps get everything.
Also, the word debate equates to delay, delay, delay.
Such hypocrisy from Collins and the rest of the Rethugs. They don’t think DADT needs to be overturned. It’s worked so well for Ms. McConnell and Ms. Graham all these years, and should serve the Senate debutante of 2011 Ms. Kirk well too. Don’t ask, don’t tell girls! The Rethugs will hold America hostage to get the tax bill through, and will any of them be willing to give their massive tax returns back? I think not.