The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Wednesday on a standalone bill, introduced Tuesday, seeking repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy introduced the bill Tuesday as a way of encouraging and speeding up the passage of a similar standalone bill in the Senate.

The Senate last week fell just three votes short of moving to consideration of the issue through the Defense Authorization bill, which includes repeal language. And if the House passes this bill Wednesday and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid attempts to bring it to the floor of the Senate in the next few days, it will still need 60 votes to reach the floor.

But Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said last week she would have voted for cloture on the defense bill had she been in the chamber during the vote. And Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) has said he would vote for cloture after the Senate completes passage of a bill to extend tax cuts.

The Senate is expected to pass the tax cut extension bill Tuesday evening, and many predict it will also pass the House soon thereafter.

So, the bill to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) would need only one more Republican vote on cloture and a simple majority to pass on its merits. Democratic leaders have said repeal of DADT has had more than enough support for that for months now.

One troubling development for repeal—though not one that is expected to deliver much punch—was a statement Tuesday from U.S. Marine Corps Commandant James Amos. Amos told reporters at a Pentagon briefing that he thinks repeal threatens the lives of Marines in combat because a soldier’s being gay presents a “distraction” to Marines and “distractions cost Marines’ lives.”

“I don’t want to lose any Marines to distraction,” said Amos. “I don’t want to have any Marines that I’m visiting at Bethesda [Army Hospital] with no legs.”