Washington The senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee and many other members of the party opposed a provision in a large defense policy package that passed the House on Wednesday that forbids gender-affirming care for servicemembers’ children.
It was approved 281-140.
The National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, is a comprehensive law that must be passed in order to allow expenditures for the Defense Department and establish defense policy prior to their expiration at the end of the year. It now goes to the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, and needs to be signed into law by President Joe Biden.
Senior members of the House and Senate negotiated the bill. However, because the NDAA forbids gender-affirming care, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the former chairman of the Armed Services and current ranking member of the panel, stated that he would oppose its passage.
Smith said in a statement on Tuesday that it is wrong to [blatantly] refuse health care to those in need based solely on a prejudice toward transgender persons. In addition to endangering children’s lives, the inclusion of this detrimental clause may compel thousands of service members to decide whether to stay in the military or leave in order to provide their children with the medical care they require.
Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, had personally lobbied for the inclusion of the contentious clause in the package. Smith claimed in his statement that Johnson was pushing for the ban to please conservatives in his conference before the vote on January 3 to extend his term as speaker for a further two years.
“In an effort to keep his speakership, he decided to appease the most radical members of his party rather than follow that [bipartisan] route and make sure service members and military families receive the assistance they require and deserve,” Smith said.
The NDAA usually receives large, bipartisan support in Congress. Prior to the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., assured reporters that his team was not pressuring or swaying ordinary Democratic members to support or against the bill.
The clause in question would forbid medical care for military dependents under the age of 18 who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and it explicitly pertains to Tricare, the military’s health care program.
Republicans think that their 2024 campaign attacks on transgender rights contributed to their win. They are now intensifying that approach. Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, was specifically targeted by Johnson’s new policy, which was established after the election and prohibited transgender women from using women’s restrooms in the House.
Johnson was also involved in the battle over a clause that would have extended Tricare’s coverage to encompass treatments for in vitro fertilization. According to a Senate aide with knowledge of the negotiations, the speaker made abandoning it a red line demand.
However, according to the speaker’s office, the dispute was more complex. Separate NDAAs with provisions facilitating military families’ access to IVF therapy had been approved by the House and Senate Armed Services committees. Negotiators in the House and Senate, however, were unable to agree on “sufficient pro-life protections,” according to the speaker’s office.
“The Speaker remains pro-IVF and has encouraged states to take up the issue responsibly and ethically,” a spokesperson for Johnson stated.
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