WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives easily approved the annual defense policy bill on Wednesday, despite behind schedule opposition from Democrats over supply that prohibits military health insurance coverage for children of service members seeking transgender care.
Lawmakers passed a historically bipartisan package 241-180. Ultimately, 81 Democrats supported the bill and 16 Republicans voted against it. The solution will now go to the Senate.
Congress has approved mandatory legislation for 63 consecutive years. President Joe Biden has not yet made a statement on whether he will sign the bill.
The $884.9 billion the act provides for a pay boost of 4.5% for all soldiers and an additional 10% boost for the youngest soldiers in the army, from private to corporal. The bill also includes improvements to military housing and child care.
Massive package is a policy bill, meaning it does not provide funding to the Pentagon but rather solidifies the Department of Defense’s goals for the coming fiscal year. Congressional owners still must approve any actual spending.
“Thousands of children’s lives are at risk”
Among the Democrats who opposed the final legislation was the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Republican Adam Smith. In a statement after the vote, Smith said he could not vote “yes” even though there was “much to celebrate” in the text.
“Yet the destructive effect of Speaker Johnson’s insistence on including the harmful provision puts the lives of thousands of children at risk by denying them health care, and could force thousands of service members to choose between continuing military service or leaving the military to ensure a child can get the health care they need. This will be felt for generations to come,” said Smith, from Washington state.
All Democrats present during the procedural stage to introduce the bill on Tuesday voted against the defense package.
A four-line provision in the 1,800-page bill prohibits TRICARE military health insurance coverage for children of service members who seek “medical interventions to treat gender dysphoria that may result in sterilization.”
Treatment for gender dysphoria – the discrepancy between a person’s gender assigned at birth and their current gender expression – includes mental health measures, hormone therapy and surgery. The bill does not specify what treatments are prohibited.
Smith said on the floor before the vote that the measure was introduced “for ignorant and bigoted reasons against the transgender community” and that it “damages an otherwise excellent piece of legislation.”
The Speaker of the House of Representatives praises the ban
Alabama State Representative Mike Rogers, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, he said reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday that House Speaker Mike Johnson “didn’t talk to me about it” before including the provision in the final text.
Johnson, R-Louisiana, touted the measure Tuesday as well as other legislation that freezes hiring for diversity, equity and inclusion jobs and prohibits federal funding for certain race relations education at Defense Department institutions.
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, criticized the House’s approval of the solution included in the final version of the bill, claiming that the military was used as a “bargaining chip” in the matter.
“Military service members and their families wake up every day and sacrifice more than most of us will ever understand. These families protect our right to live freely and with dignity – they deserve the same right and freedom to access the care their children need,” Robinson said.
“Today, politicians in this House betrayed the promise our nation makes to those who serve. Anti-LGBTQ+ policies have not been enshrined in federal law since the passage of the Defense of Marriage Act nearly 30 years ago. For the thousands of families affected, this is not about politics. It’s about newborn people who deserve our support,” continued the campaign president.
Space Force controversy
Another provision of the bill would transfer some Air National Guard functions and personnel to the Space Force without the approval of state governors – a move that has sparked opposition.
About 1,000 Air National Guard space specialists serve in 14 units in seven states, according to the U.S. Air National Guard Association, which conducted an analysis of the solution.
The move could affect up to 33 employees in Alaska, 126 in California, 119 in Colorado, 75 in Florida, 130 in Hawaii and 69 in Ohio.
Retired Maj. Gen. Francis M. McGinn, president of the National Guard Association, said in: statement Monday that the provision poses an “existential threat to state authority over the National Guard.”
An amendment to repeal a provision proposed by Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse from Colorado lost on Monday in the House Rules Committee.
New explosion exposure requirements
The final bill also included measures to prevent, evaluate, and treat conditions, including traumatic brain injuries, experienced by service members repeatedly exposed to explosions pressure waves.
The legislation requires the Department of Defense to establish the Defense Intrepid Network for Traumatic Brain Injury and Brain Health no later than January 1, 2026. Other tasks include creating blast exposure safety thresholds by early 2027 and establishing policies to encourage service members to seeking treatment without fear of retaliation for brain injury.
The department will also be required to report to Congress on, among other things, safety initiatives and the number of service members seeking treatment.
This year, Sens. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, and Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, and House Democrat Ro Khanna of California championed the safety legislation.
United States Newsroom heard in May 2020, he received the Purple Heart from Washington State, who was among more than 100 soldiers who suffered brain injuries as a result of the Iranian airstrike on the U.S. Al Asad Air Base in Iraq in January 2020.
During the October campaign, President-elect Donald Trump downplayed these soldiers’ injuries as “headaches” This isn’t the first time Trump has disparaged soldiers’ injuries from the 2020 attack.
Last updated at 17:38, December 11, 2024
How the Pennsylvania delegation voted
The vote among U.S. Representatives in Pennsylvania was not clearly along party lines, with Democrat Brendan Boyle (2nd District); Mary Gay Scanlon (5th District); Summer Lee (12th District) and Chris Deluzio (17th District). vote against center, along with Republican Scott Perry (10th District). Rep. Dwight Evans (D-3 District) did not vote.
Deluzio, a U.S. Navy and Iraq War veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that while there were some elements of the bill that he supported, he ultimately voted against the NDAA because “we need greater oversight of the Pentagon’s spending of our public dollars. We all pay for our military, and too often defense contractors cheat us by having little competition and putting their profits ahead of our common national defense.”
Perry, a retired National Guard brigadier general, said in: post on social media that the NDAA “does very little to reform wasteful Pentagon spending, limit the Department of Defense’s current prioritization of DEI over merit, and end wasteful foreign policy efforts that do not serve America’s interests.” Expecting the American people to foot the bill for the absurd provisions in this bill is out of the question.”
