Speaker of the House Nancy Polosi (D-Ca.), Reps. Steny Howyer (D-Md.) and Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) will introduce a stand-alone bill in the House to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, according to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. The move comes after a similar announcement made last week by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.) and Susan Collins (R-Me.) of a stand-alone repeal measure in the Senate.

“We applaud  House Speaker Pelosi, Reps. Hoyer and Murphy for their extraordinary leadership in the waning hours of the lame-duck session,” said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network in a press release issued this morning.

“Let’s be clear: we’ll still need 60 votes in the Senate,” Sarvis continued. “This ‘privileged’ House bill will need to pass the full House and then move to the Senate.  While we avoid a cloture vote to proceed and save time on the Senate floor, we’ll still need 60 votes to complete the bill and send it directly to the President’s desk.”

According to Washington Blade, the House bill will be identical to the Senate version. The house is poised to move forward first on the legislation, possibly as early as tomorrow, according to the Blade.

The Senate failed to move forward on the 2011 Defense Authorization Act last week, which had repeal language included. After Republicans blocked the cloture vote on the measure, Lieberman and Collins said they would move forward with a stand-alone repeal.

Top photo: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Cali.) (Publicity photo)