Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, as well as a dozen democrats put Majority leader Harry Reid under immense pressure to strike a deal with republicans to propagate the passing of a bill aimed at letting homosexuals to serve openly in the military.

Reid is being urged to extend debate on the defence policy bill, which repeals the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ 1993 law. Reid declined to give GOP senators two weeks to debate the policy that resulted in their sinking of the measure. Republicans were also adamant that they require more time to discuss the bill, which cuts across a wide range of defence-policy issues such as troop pay.

Should Reid agree to an extension, Democrats are positive that they will be able to garner the votes required to advance the bill. However, the Majority leader’s spokesman, Jim Manley said that a decision on how much time would be allotted for discussion was yet to be made. Lieberman was quick to emphasize that Reid is yet to struck a deal yet but termed it as the beginning of a process. He also stated he has made appeals with no success to Senator McCain who is leading the GOP opposition to lift the ban.

The Defence Department, through its spokesman, Geoff Morrell said that it was going to release a study on the effects of lifting the gay ban on December 1st. This is despite calls in Congress to release it earlier.

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