The Senate Armed Services Committee will waste no time launching into hearings next week on the possibility of repealing the ban on open military service by homosexuals.The committee will devote one hour of questioning to that issue when Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen appear on Capitol Hill to discuss President Obama’s 2011 defense budget proposal.Discussion of the law that bars open service by homosexuals and the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that derives from the law will come at noon Tuesday.The Senate committee plans additional hearings, but Tuesday’s questioning of Gates and Mullen about whether they support Obama’s initiative to repeal the gay ban and what complications they envision if the law is changed will get the discussions underway.Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Thursday that Gates, who along with Mullen has held discussions with Obama on the issue over the past year, would use his Capitol Hill appearance to revisit concerns that he has previously expressed.In reply to a question following remarks he made during an April 2009 visit to the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., for example, Gates expressed concern about trying to resolve what he called a “complex and difficult problem” at a time when the wartime force is “under considerable strain.”Gates also noted then that when President Truman signed the executive order in 1948 that mandated racial integration of the U.S. military, “It was five years before that process was completed. I’m not saying that’s a model for this, but I’m saying that I believe this is something that needs to be done very, very carefully.”Implementation planMorrell said Gates and Mullen “are, and frankly have been, working on an implementation plan, and they will have more to say ... with regards to their proposed way forward with ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ early next week. This is a plan on how to proceed with the president’s vision.”Mullen’s spokesman, Navy Capt. John Kirby, would not address the specifics of what Mullen would say. “The chairman and the [Joint Chiefs] very clearly understand the president’s intent to repeal the law,” Kirby said. “And they take very seriously their obligation to give the president their best military advice about the impact of repeal on the force and ways to think about the implications of it.”The law and policy also may come up for discussion when Gates and Mullen appear Tuesday morning before the House Armed Services Committee, but Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., who does not support Obama on this issue, said he does not plan to have any full committee hearings specifically on this issue. Instead, he will leave that to his military personnel subcommittee, headed by Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif.Although Skelton does not support repealing the gay ban, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she does.After Wednesday night’s State of the Union address, in which Obama said he would work with military leaders and Congress this year to change the law, Pelosi said in a statement that Obama spoke “about the long overdue need to repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and acknowledged the many lesbian and gay service members who serve honorably in our military, and wish to do so openly.”“We look forward to working with him on this issue of fundamental fairness and supporting the patriotic Americans who serve — and wish to serve — our country in uniform,” she said.