How? By a simple, fresh House vote and a simple Senate vote, divorced from other issues:
“There has always been the possibility of bringing up the repeal as a free-standing bill in the House or Senate,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said in a statement Monday night. “As we come to the end of the session, all options to repeal don't ask, don’t tell’ are now on the table.” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has been working on a bill with Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.), with language reportedly tracking a bipartisan measure introduced last week in the Senate. The House approved a Murphy repeal amendment to the massive defense authorization bill, 234-194, in May.
And part of the pathway to this is resolving the tax cut deal as soon as possible. As I've noted before, the final days of this Congress are revealing it as a remarkable closer - after a remarkably substantive two years.