Dec. 18 (UPI) — The $895.2 billion defense bill passed by the U.S. Senate Wednesday bans using federal money for gender-affirming care for transgender children in military families. The National Defense Authorization Act passed the Senate 85 to 14. President Joe Biden is expected to sign it.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., forced the anti-trans provision into the bill over House Democrat and some Republican objections before it passed the House on a 281-140 vote.
The NDAA vote is usually overwhelmingly bipartisan.
Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin said taking away gender-affirming care rights for kids of military families led to her voting against the NDAA for the first time in her Senate career.
Speaking on the Senate floor, she said adding the provision was “flat-out wrong” and said it “guts our service members’ rights” to score what she called cheap political points.
In remarks on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said this NDAA isn’t perfect but praised the bill’s “strong stand” against China.
The legislation prevents TRICARE, the military’s health program, from covering gender-affirming care to transgender children of service members.
Sen. Baldwin led an effort to amend the bill to take the transgender care ban out of the bill, but couldn’t get enough votes to do it.
Republicans supported the bill with the ban on gender-affirming care coverage because they oppose that care for trans youth in general and therefore support curtailing trans rights to that care in the military.