Moments ago, Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), and the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF), announced that White House officials and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will bring the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to the floor of the Senate during the lame duck session, with an amendment to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell:

Key Senate leadership and Administration officials this evening met with representatives of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), and the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF). The officials told the groups that Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama are committed to moving forward on repeal by bringing the National Defense Authorization Act – the bill to which “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal is attached – to the floor in the lame duck session after the Thanksgiving recess. Further the Majority Leader and the President made clear their opposition to removing the DADT provision from the NDAA. Information on the exact timing and procedural conditions will be announced by the Majority Leader’s office.

The question, of course, is whether the Senate will have enough time to consider the measure in an open amendment process, something that typically requires two weeks of debate. Therefore, if Reid brings the measure to the floor on Monday, November 29th, the Senate could finish debate and vote on the bill by December 13th and then begin conferencing the measure with the aim of passing it before Christmas.

“Present at the meeting with representatives from HRC, SLDN and CAPAF were: Jim Messina, Deputy White House Chief of Staff; Phil Schiliro, White House Director of Legislative Affairs; Chris Kang, Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs; Brian Bond, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; David Krone, Chief of Staff to Majority Leader Reid; and Serena Hoy, Senior Counsel to Majority Leader Reid,” the groups’ press release states.

Tomorrow, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Mark Udall (D-CO), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Roland Burris (D-IL), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Al Franken (D-MN) are also scheduled to hold a press conference urging the Senate to repeal the policy during the lame duck session.

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The Advocate’s Kerry Eleveld attended a White House press gaggle this afternoon where Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told her that while passing the National Defense Authorization Act — which contains the amendment to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — is a priority for the administration, President Obama has not yet reached out to swing Senators on the issue:

ELEVELD: Sen. Susan Collins joined Sen. Lieberman in calling for early release of the Pentagon’s report on repeal. Has the president made any phone calls to Sen. Collins or other swayable senators – does he plan to make any phone calls to those folks?

GIBBS: I don’t know that the president has – I don’t believe that the president has talked to Sen. Collins or Sen. Lieberman on this issue. To my knowledge, the study has not come over here. Obviously, it’s being finished up by the Pentagon. [...]

ELEVELD: Just today, you’ve that the START treaty is something you think will get done [during the lame duck], and you’ve said the [middle class] tax cuts are something that you have to get done. What category would you put the Defense authorization bill in?

GIBBS: I would put it in the same category. As I’ve said before, it’s a priority for the president to get it done before the end of the year.

I should note that this may contradict what a White House official told the Huffington Post’s Amanda Terkel last week. That individual said that the administration has “reached out to Democratic and Republican lawmakers on the issue, making calls as recently as Monday night.” “The Administration has not wavered from its stance that the DADT repeal should be passed during this Congress,” the official stated.

Gates’ comments focus on the President ( rather than the administration as a whole) but they do square fairly well with what I’ve been hearing from staff members for the swing senators — Snowe, Collins, Voinovich, Webb, Manchin: the administration isn’t lobbying on the issue and hasn’t called. And, it’s the same thing that the Log Cabin Republicans have complained about to Terkel and Eleveld. On Monday, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) also told repeal activists that he “cannot guarantee” the bill coming to a vote “before Thanksgiving,” and that “the White House has not been engaged.”

Meanwhile, one Senate Democratic aide told the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson that “repeal — currently pending before the U.S. Senate as part of the fiscal year 2011 defense authorization bill — is ‘barely hanging on with life support.’”

“The only way to resuscitate this effort and get a ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ vote is for President Obama and [Defense Secretary Robert] Gates to start pushing directly, something we on the Hill had expected the president and Gates to do long ago,” the aide said.

The American people are of course still on board. A new CNN poll finds that support for repealing the measure has increased from 67% in September to 72%. Only 23% of Americans oppose repeal.