The lead sponsor of legislation to repeal the antigay military policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ( DADT ) , Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., may be leaving Congress to go to the State Department. Her departure is likely to hinder the possibility of moving the repeal bill forward during this legislative session.
"Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asked me to serve as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security," the 13-year veteran of the House said in a news release issued March 18. Tauscher, a strong backer of Clinton's presidential bid, said she accepted the offer.
The statement was unusual in that nominations are made by the president and potential nominees are supposed to keep their lips sealed until the official pronouncement is made and through confirmation hearings.
Tauscher acknowledged, "The confirmation process for senior posts in government is fraught with uncertainty and can take weeks, if not months." Historically, members of Congress easily win confirmation, but the recent withdrawal of former Senate leader Tom Daschle to senior posts in the Obama administration suggests that may be changing.
Tauscher had reintroduced the repeal legislation March 3. Her announcement comes as a surprise to many of its supporters.
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network spokesman Kevin Nix thanked Tauscher for "her tireless efforts" to repeal DADT. "We wish her all the best in her move to the State Department."
"Tauscher's shoes will be difficult to fill, but we are confident that others on the House Armed Services Committee and in the full House are equally up to the task of leading the fight to lift the ban," he said.
One possible candidate is Rep Patrick Murphy, D-Penn., who serves on the personnel subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee. Murphy is just 35 and starting his second term in Congress, but he does have an impressively apt resume for the job.
A lawyer by training, he taught at West Point and volunteered for service in Iraq. He is the only member of Congress who has served in that conflict and can well represent the views of a younger generation of service members. More importantly, at last year's hearing on DADT he was very aggressive in challenging the lies, distortions and misrepresentations of the few remaining supporters of the ban.
This marks the second time in two years that the lead sponsor of the repeal effort has left Congress in midterm. Rep Marty Meehan, D-Mass., the original lead sponsor, left for a post in academia in July 2007. Tauscher was recruited to take on those responsibilities.