Moments ago, following a pair of meetings with advocates, the White House issued a statement in support of attaching an amendment to the defense authorization bill that would repeal the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy this year but delay implementation until President Obama, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen certify the Pentagon’s review of the policy.

The statement came just hours after Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI), Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) — the chief sponsor of repeal legislation in the House — wrote a letter to the administration asking its “input” on an amendment that “put a process in place to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, once the working group has completed its review.” Under the proposal, Congress would repeal the statute this year, but the current military policy would remain in place until officials certified the results of the study. Servicemembers could presumably be discharged under the more lenient guidelines enforcing the ban released by Gates in March. [Read the full letter HERE].

In its response, the administration finally backed what repeal advocates have previously described as the delay-implementation strategy [Read the full letter HERE]:

While ideally the Department of Defense Comprehensive Review on the Implementation of Repeal of 10 U.S.C. § 654 would be completed before the Congress takes any legislative action…the Administration is of the view that the proposed amendment meets the concerns raised by the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The proposed amendment will allow for completion of the Comprehensive Review, enable the Department of Defense to assess the results of the review, and ensure that the implementation of the repeal is consistent with standards of military readiness, effectiveness, unit cohesion, recruiting and retention. The amendment will also guarantee that the Department of Defense has prepared the necessary policies and regulations needed to successfully implement the repeal…the Administration therefore supports the proposed amendment.

While there appear to be enough votes to pass repeal in the House, advocates are most concerned about attracting the 15 votes needed to attach the amendment to the defense authorization bill in the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is scheduled to begin marking up the measure tomorrow. Votes on both measures have been tentatively scheduled for Thursday.

Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), the third-ranking House Republican, “promised unified GOP opposition to lifting the ban.” “The American people don’t want the American military to be used to advance a liberal political agenda. And House Republicans will stand on that principle,” he said.

The Advocate’s Kerry Eleveld is reporting that the White House, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and gay activists have reached an agreement to support legislation that would repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) this year, but delay implementation until President Obama, Gates, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen certify the results of a year-long Pentagon review scheduled to be released in December:

According to one person familiar with the White House meeting, the proposal that is being considered would repeal the current statute this year, but implementation of repeal would not take place until after completion of the Pentagon’s working group study in December. Further, repeal would require certification from President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Joint Chiefs Chair Admiral Mike Mullen that the new law will not have a negative impact on readiness, recruitment, retention and other key factors that affect the military.

The language would not include a nondiscrimination policy but rather will return authority for open service by gays and lesbians back to the Pentagon.

Activists hope that Gates’ support for the new strategy — he has previously warned Congress against repealing the ban before the military completed its review — could win over enough moderate Democrats and Republicans (Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) is said to be “neutral” on the issue but “moving in the right direction“) on the Senate Armed Services Committee to attach the provision to the defense authorization bill in the Senate Armed Services Committee. That vote, along with a vote on repeal in the House, are tentatively scheduled for Thursday.

Once Obama, Gates, and Mullen certify the results of the Pentagon study late this year or early next year, the legislation will trigger repeal and institute a new non-discrimination policy. Ironically, when the United States adopted ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in October of 1993, lawmakers relied on a similar strategy, passing the policy in Congress before the Pentagon issued rules on how to implement it.

Asked about the negotiations during today’s press briefing, Robert Gibbs said, “Obviously it’s likely that Congress is going to act this week. If they decide to do that, we’ll certainly examine what those efforts are.” Gibbs also suggested that the White House had called the meeting.

On Friday, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) discussed the effectiveness of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy, regurgitating the familiar unsubstantiated talking points about how a repeal could undermine troop morale and military effectiveness. McCain dismissed the frequent discharges of essential military personnel and said that Congress was only considering repealing the policy “because of no other reason than President Obama’s campaign promise.” “The military is at its highest level of effectiveness, morale, equipment, training, professionalism, and why we would want to disrupt that when we’re in the middle of two wars is something that I find very, very wrong,” McCain said.

Perkins agreed and suggested that allowing gays to serve openly would transform the institution into one that organizes parades:

TONY PERKINS: Absolutely, without question – I know a lot of people point to militaries that have allowed homosexuality within the ranks – there’s twenty-five of almost two hundred nations but the top militaries in the world do not allow homosexuality to be openly engaged in, in the military – I mean, if you want a military that just does parades and stuff like that then I guess that’s okay.

Listen:

In reality, three of the United States’ closest allies—Israel, Canada, and the United Kingdom—”have successfully removed all restrictions on gays and lesbians in their armed forces since the early 1990s.” “All three countries made quick, successful transitions to policies of open service” without additional parades.

McCain responded to Perkins by stressing the inclusiveness of DADT. “We don’t, we do not tell someone who is homosexual that they can’t join the military – we don’t tell them that…So it’s not discriminatory and no one forces anyone to join the military and if they wanna have a sexual orientation we don’t keep them from having that orientation,” he said. The Senator also suggested that Congressional proponents of repeal have not served in the military, despite the fact that Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) — the lead sponsor of repeal in the House — is an Iraqi war veteran.

Approximately 14,000 servicemembers have been discharged under the 17-year old policy and the government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars replacing discharged members. It’s estimated that there are at least 65,000 gay and lesbian servicemembers on active military duty today and another 1 million gay and lesbian veterans.