'Don't ask, don't tell' gets House hearing

WASHINGTON, July 22 (UPI) -- Congressional Democrats say they are taking what some hope will be the first step to changing the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" gay service policy.

U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., has introduced a bill that would repeal the policy and let gays and lesbians serve openly in the military. Democrats on the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee scheduled a Wednesday hearing for it, the first time the policy has been directly discussed in Congress since it was instituted by the Clinton administration in 1993, USA Today reported.

"There's another year in the war," said Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., chairwoman of the committee's military personnel subcommittee. "We want to start a conversation."

No one from the Pentagon was scheduled to testify at the hearing. U.S. Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell told the newspaper the Pentagon has already answered questions about the "don't ask, don't tell" policy at other hearings.

"Not much has changed," he said. "It is still the law of the land."