The House passed a bill Wednesday to greenlight a 1% increase in defense spending this fiscal year, provide raises for junior military members and enact a controversial provision banning gender-affirming care for children of military members, under a certain condition.
The House voted 281-140. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
The House passed the $895 billion bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, in a 281-140 vote, with 81 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote with Republicans.
The controversial provision banning gender-affirming care specifically bars transgender medical treatment for children of military members if the treatment could potentially cause sterilization.
The act also authorizes a 14.5% pay raise for junior service members and military housing and child care improvements.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., blasted the gender-affirming care provision, saying in a statement it “injected a level of partisanship not traditionally seen in defense bills” before accusing Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., of “pandering to the most extreme elements of his party to ensure that he retains his speakership.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said ahead of the vote that Democratic votes would be made on a "member-to-member, case-by-case" basis, noting “a lot of positive things" were included in the act alongside some “troubling provisions in a few areas.”
Johnson said the bill includes “critical wins for our troops and for our country at a very important time” and that it will cut $31 billion in funding for obsolete weapons, inefficient programs and “bloated Pentagon bureaucracy.”
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The bill will be sent to the Democratic-led Senate and will go to President Joe Biden if passed. The president is expected to sign it.
Gender-affirming care restrictions have been a target for Republicans, who successfully banned or restricted aspects of the treatment in a large group of states last year. As of this summer, gender-affirming care was restricted in 25 states including Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Georgia and Florida, according to NPR, which noted zero states had such laws just a few years ago. President-elect Donald Trump, who vowed during his campaign to roll back LGBTQ+ protections, said last year he would have federal agencies stop healthcare providers from providing gender-affirming services for minors. Trump has characterized the services as “child abuse” and “child sexual mutilation” and pushed for restrictions on federal funding allocated toward transgender issues. The president-elect, who will have a Republican majority in the House and Senate, has also vowed to “cut federal funding” for schools teaching “critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”
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