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The Democratic leadership in both the House of Representatives and Senate tried to end the "don't ask, don't tell" policy with an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill. On May 27, 2010, on a 234–194 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 which provided for repeal of the DADT policy. On the same day the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on a 16–12 vote advanced an identical measure to be included in the Defense Authorization Act. The amended defense bill passed the House on May 28, 2010. But on September 21, 2010, John McCain led a successful (56 in favor, 43 opposed) filibuster against the debate on the Defense Authorization Act.
On November 30, 2010, the Department of Defense's Comprehensive Review Working Group on the repeal of DADT issued its formal report outlining a path to the implementation of repeal of the policy. The report indicated that there was low risk of service disruptions because of repeal of the ban. Defense Secretary Robert Gates encouraged Congress to act quickly to repeal the law so that the military could carefully adjust rather than face a court decision requiring it to lift the policy immediately. The United States Senate held two days of hearings on December 2 and 3, 2010, to consider the report. Defense Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Michael Mullen both urged immediate repeal of the policy.
Democrats in Congress quickly scheduled hearings to consider repeal of the law. On December 3, the Joint Chiefs of Staff appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee to testify about repeal. While the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chief of Naval Operations, and Commandant of the Coast Guard said repeal would cause minimal disruption, heads of the Army, Air Force, and Marines opposed repeal because it would cause additional stress on combat focused forces during war.
On December 9, 2010, another filibuster prevented debate on the Defense Authorization Act during the lame duck session of Congress. In response to the filibuster, Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins introduced a bill that included the policy-related portions of the Defense Authorization Act that they considered more likely to pass as a stand-alone bill. The stand-alone bill was sponsored by Congressman Patrick Murphy and it passed the House on a vote of 250 to 175 on December 15, 2010.
On December 18, 2010, the Senate voted to end debate on its version of the bill by a cloture vote of 63–33. Prior to the vote, Sen. Lieberman gave the final argument in favor of repealing DADT and Sen. McCain argued against repeal. The final Senate vote was held later that same day, with the measure passing by a vote of 65–31.
Secretary Gates released a statement following the vote indicating that the planning for implementation of a policy repeal would begin right away. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on December 22, 2010.