Last night, the Courage Campaign hosted a conference call about the pending repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Lt. Dan Choi. Gillibrand laid out a three options for repealing the policy, but said that she had yet to secure 60 votes for a repeal. “I think we can have an immediate moratorium, or immediate repeal, or immediate stop of funding, whichever vehicle we can get done first, I think is what we should do,” she said, suggesting that Democrats are coalescing around a strategy that would insert a moratorium into the defense authorization bill.

“The reason why a moratorium might be the quickest way is because there may be one or two senators who believe that because the military asked for a year, they want to show in some way that they’re giving them time.” “A moratorium might get you to the 60 votes, whereas a full repeal might be shy 59 or 58,” she added:

GILLIBRAND: I talked to Chairman Levin today again what he thought the best strategy was and he thinks if we can put it in the underlining bill, in the authorizing legislation, to put a moratorium on the policy for the next 18 months would be the best approach and so I’m going to start writing a letter to get signatures of my colleagues to really begin to develop the votes that I need to show that we can repeal this policy.

Listen:

Gillibrand sounded optimistic. “I think there are one or two other senators who are in play on this issue [besides Snowe and Collins],” Gilliband said. “I think on the Democratic side, when I asked all my colleagues and I asked all of them, nobody said that they would vote against repeal, nobody said that. They just said they were undecided…there may be one or two that would have trouble doing that, but they did not say they were against repeal.” She said that the President’s commitment and the military’s strong testimony in favor of the repeal emboldened her to ask wavering senators, “what’s your excuse now?”

Asked about what the President could do to end DADT, Gillibrand explained that Obama couldn’t issue an executive order repealing the DADT law, but could declare a “stop-loss,” “meaning we just don’t enforce the policy because we don’t allow anybody to leave the military or the President could create very high requirements for enforcement that noone would ever meet those requirements.”

“I feel it’s my calling, I feel, it’s something I’m built to do and I feel very passionate about it and as soon as we repeal DADT, we’re going to go straight for DOMA and we’re going to get an inclusive ENDA and we dont’ want to leave out the ‘T’ because it’s convenient for some people to leave out the ‘T’.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) plans to introduce an amendment to the budget that would deny “funding to the military for the costs of pursuing inquiries, dismissal proceedings and other procedures associated with enforcing” ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ The NYT’s Caucus blog reports that “Gillibrand has considered such a proposal before but held off because she felt she did not have the 60 votes needed to get the measure through the Senate.” Congress’ new emphasis on freezing wasteful spending and the military’s support for ending the policy could generate votes from more fiscally conservative members. As Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) — who opposes repealing DADT — himself admitted, “I don’t think any agency of the federal government should be exempt from rooting out wasteful spending or unnecessary spending. And I, frankly, I would agree with it at the Pentagon. There’s got to be wasteful spending there, unnecessary spending there.”

Studies have indicated that the cost of discharging and replacing service members fired because of their sexual orientation during the policy’s first 10 years varied from $190.5 million to $363.8 million (if the high cost of training officers and other factors are considered).

Gilibrand’s amendment also suggests that Congress will begin to chisel away at DADT this year without instituting a full repeal. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) has signaled that Congress might adopt a moratorium on discharges but seemed to accept that Congress would have to wait for the Pentagon to finish its review before reversing the policy. Defense Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen have testified that they would need a year to study DADT and then at least another year to implement a new policy.

Still, the Democrats’ timeline for repeal is unclear. On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told reporters that “she’s unsure whether the House will overturn ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ this year” and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has indicated that he would support a moratorium as an interim measure. Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday that “by this year’s end, we will have eliminated the policy.”

On Thursday Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) appeared on The Michelangelo Signorile Show to argue that Congress should proceed with the repeal before the review is complete. “By the time the bill can be signed by the President, and it’s going to take a bill and it goes through the House and it goes through the Senate and he has to sign it and it will be 6 to 7 months. As quickly as we can do this, it will be by toward the end of the year.” “So Gates has plenty of time to study whatever the hell it is he thinks he has to study,” Frank said.