SCHUMER SHUTDOWN SALE: 74% Off VIP Memberships!
The Dems' Are Working Hard to Get This Schumer Shutdown Point Across. It's...
This CNN Commentator Knows What's Coming to Dems After the Schumer Shutdown Ends
AG Bondi to Appeal the Perversion of Justice in the Sentencing of Justice...
Kash Patel Dog Walks MSNBC for Fake News About James Comey Indictment
Scott Wiener: Accusations of Fascism Will Continue Until Conservatives Bend the Knee to...
Colorado Authorities Reopen Investigation Into Death of Hunter S. Thompson
Maxwell House Coffee’s Temporary Rebrand Is Something Else
Hope Amid Chaos in Nigeria
Nation Stunned After Child's Killer Freed
WATCH: Michigan Law Enforcement Eradicates Church Attacker
Maryland Accountant Sentenced to 3 Years for $24M COVID Relief Fraud
Over 90,000 Investors Scammed in $200M Bitcoin Fraud
Gunfire Erupts in Broadview: Armed Woman Targets DHS Agents
No Workouts, Just Payouts: Fitness Company Was a PPP Front
Tipsheet

Senate Passes $895 Billion Defense Bill as Dems Complain About ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Minors

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

The Senate passed the $895 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Wednesday with an 85-14 vote. The bill is now headed to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.

Advertisement

The 1,800-page legislation will fund the Defense Department for fiscal year 2025. It includes provisions such as a 14.5 percent pay raise for junior enlisted troops and investments in defense technologies.

This year’s NDAA was not without controversy, however. The measure included a provision that would ban the use of taxpayer funds from going toward “gender-affirming care” for the children of service members. Democratic lawmakers criticized the provision, claiming it will deprive trans-identified children of healthcare.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said the provision is “the product of a nationwide campaign against trans rights” and said it would mark “the first anti-LGBTQ law passed by Congress in decades,” according to CBS News.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) said he “strongly disagrees” with the provision banning funding for “gender-affirming care,” referring to it as a “misguided provision.”

Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who chairs the Armed Services Committee, called the legislation a “strong, forward looking bill that we can all be proud of.” But he said he “strongly” disagrees with the inclusion of the gender-affirming care provision, calling it a “misguided provision.”

“I share many of my colleagues’ frustrations that the bill includes a provision that would prohibit gender-affirming health care for minors under certain circumstances,” Reed noted, adding that he voted against the provision in committee. “We will continue to work to ensure the health care rights of all military personnel and their dependents.”

The provision was pushed by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who hailed the measure as victory. “This legislation permanently bans transgender treatment for minors, prohibits critical race theory in military academies, and combats antisemitism,” he said, according to NBC News.

Advertisement

The Speaker said the provision was aimed at prioritizing “military lethality, not radical woke ideology.”

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), the sole LGBTQ member of the Senate, argued that the provision would affect about 6,000 to 7,000 military families. “We’re talking about parents who are in uniform serving our country who have earned the right to make the best decisions for their families,” she argued.

The lawmaker further argued that the discussion centers on military parents “having the right to consult their family’s doctor and get the health care they want and need for their transgender children.”

Other Democrats opposed the NDAA for other reasons. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) argued that too much funding would be going to the military. He insisted that the nation does “not need to spend almost a trillion dollars on the military while half a million Americans are homeless, children go hungry, and elderly people are unable to afford to heat their homes in the winter.”

Despite the debate over taxpayer-funded “gender-affirming care,” the president is expected to sign the bill.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement