A divided House on Wednesday passed a defense policy bill that would direct $895 billion to the Pentagon and other military operations, moving over the opposition of Democrats who objected to a provision denying coverage for transgender health care for the children of service members.
Republicans banded together to support the annual defense measure, which included a 14.5 percent pay raise for junior enlisted service members. But many Democrats refused to back the normally bipartisan legislation, chiding the G.O.P. for including the limitation on transgender care, which they argued was discriminatory and politically motivated.
The provision in question would bar TRICARE, the military’s health care plan, from covering “medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization” for children under 18.
“We banned TRICARE from prescribing treatments that would ultimately sterilize our kids,” Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, told reporters this week. The speaker insisted at the last minute that he would not bring a defense bill to the floor without the provision, according to aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.
But Democrats argued that the measure was too draconian. They also said that the language was dangerously broad, and might be used to deny minors treatments to deal with the anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation that many transgender children experience.
“We are doing it because of ignorant, bigoted reasons against the trans community,” Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said on the House floor, adding that the provision “taints an otherwise excellent piece of legislation.”
