With Congress reportedly set to make a move on the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of gays in the military, the White House may settle for a compromise.

According to a report by The Associated Press, Congress will go ahead with removing the 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy but will wait until the effective date of the repeal will be delayed until after the Pentagon has completed its report, according to a feature on the Navy Times. The Pentagon, for its part, will continue to review the system and the actual implementation of the new policies that will arise out of repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” may take some time – even years, although the exact timeline is not yet known.

Approval for the implementation of allowing gays to openly serve in the military will be given by President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen. Rep. Patrick Murphy, who is leading the repeal effort in the House and is himself a veteran of Iraq, stressed: “We want to be clear: This review is focused on ‘how’ the military should implement repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ not ‘if’ it should.”

During a speech at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, last year, Gates referred to the executive order given in 1948 that called for racial integration in the military, which took five years to implement. This was seen as an indication for how long the implementation of allowing gays to openly serve in the military may take. Gates stated back then: “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.”