WASHINGTON -- A panel of defense experts and gay rights advocates said Tuesday the nation's ban on homosexuals has cost the military $364 million over a 10-year period.
That's almost double what the Government Accountability Office estimated last year, $191 million.
The University of California-Santa Barbara's Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities sponsored the analysis, assembling a commission including former Defense Secretary William Perry, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb, and two West Point professors, among others.
The commission looked at the costs associated with the ban since Congress passed the "don't ask, don't tell" law in 1993 at the military's behest, rather than the outright lifting of the prohibition on gays in the military that president Bill Clinton initially sought.
Under the policy, recruits may not be asked their sexual orientation, but neither may they declare it or act on it. Doing so is grounds for dismissal. More than 10,000 service members have separated from the military, either having resigned or been fired. Each of those members represents a cost in lost training and the cost of training their replacements. There is also a cost associated with convening boards to implement the policy, and to review individual cases for dismissal.
The discrepancy in the commission's numbers and the GAO's numbers last year lay in disagreements about the cost of training individual service members. A GAO report in 1998 reported the Defense Department calculates the cost of training an enlisted member at $28,000 per person. The GAO used much lower numbers in its study last year and did not calculate the higher investment in officer training.
The new report also believes the GAO overestimated the cost of implementing the policy by about $15 million.
Last year, military officials said the cost estimates were meaningless because every year thousands of military personnel leave the service for various reasons and must be replaced.
The report released Tuesday breaks down the personnel losses into much narrower categories, determining how much of the investment in training the military recouped prior to each gay service member being separated.
That's almost double what the Government Accountability Office estimated last year, $191 million.
The University of California-Santa Barbara's Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities sponsored the analysis, assembling a commission including former Defense Secretary William Perry, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb, and two West Point professors, among others.
The commission looked at the costs associated with the ban since Congress passed the "don't ask, don't tell" law in 1993 at the military's behest, rather than the outright lifting of the prohibition on gays in the military that president Bill Clinton initially sought.
Under the policy, recruits may not be asked their sexual orientation, but neither may they declare it or act on it. Doing so is grounds for dismissal. More than 10,000 service members have separated from the military, either having resigned or been fired. Each of those members represents a cost in lost training and the cost of training their replacements. There is also a cost associated with convening boards to implement the policy, and to review individual cases for dismissal.
The discrepancy in the commission's numbers and the GAO's numbers last year lay in disagreements about the cost of training individual service members. A GAO report in 1998 reported the Defense Department calculates the cost of training an enlisted member at $28,000 per person. The GAO used much lower numbers in its study last year and did not calculate the higher investment in officer training.
The new report also believes the GAO overestimated the cost of implementing the policy by about $15 million.
Last year, military officials said the cost estimates were meaningless because every year thousands of military personnel leave the service for various reasons and must be replaced.
The report released Tuesday breaks down the personnel losses into much narrower categories, determining how much of the investment in training the military recouped prior to each gay service member being separated.
