House Passes Defense Bill That Strips Health Care From Military Families’ Trans Kids

The GOP slipped the anti-trans provision into the National Defense Authorization Act, which now heads to the Senate for a vote.

WASHINGTON — The House passed a bill on Wednesday that authorizes funding for the military — with a last-minute GOP provision to strip health care from military families’ transgender kids tucked into it.

Lawmakers voted 281 to 140 to pass the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, authorizing more than $895 billion in defense spending through next September. More than 120 Democrats opposed it, along with 16 Republicans.

Congress votes every year on an NDAA, which is considered must-pass legislation because it authorizes funding for all of the country’s defense priorities. House Democrats worked with Republicans to craft the bulk of the current bill, which is a whopping 1,813 pages long.

But GOP leaders inserted the anti-trans provision after bipartisan negotiations were done. It’s buried on page 399: “Medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization may not be provided to a child under the age of 18.”

This language — if it stays in the version of the bill that is ultimately passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Joe Biden — will put parents in the position of having to choose between their careers in the military and providing medically necessary health care for their loved ones.