Earlier this week, President Joe Biden signed into law a defense bill that, among other things, boosts overall military spending to $895 billion—but that also removes coverage of transgender medical treatments for children in military families, NBC News noted.
Biden said his administration expressed its opposition to the anti-trans provision because it targets a group based on gender identity and “interferes with parents’ roles to determine the best care for their children,” adding, “No service member should have to decide between their family’s health care access and their call to serve our nation.”
The Senate forwarded the bill to Biden after passing it last week by a vote of 85-14. (Eleven Democrats and three Republicans voted against it.) Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who chairs the Armed Services Committee, called the measure a “strong, forward looking bill that we can all be proud of” although he also mentioned his misgivings about the anti-trans item, per CBS News. The measure passed the U.S. House 281 to 140 earlier this month.
In a statement, Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said, in part, “Congress and the White House have failed military families. This country’s first anti-LGBTQ+ federal law in almost 30 years disgraces those who have sacrificed so much. We will continue to support, trust and fight for all military families.” And after the Senate passed the bill, GLAAD called the measure “dangerous,” adding that the provision “effectively bans nearly all forms of gender-affirming care through TRICARE, health care that is supported by every major medical association as safe, studied and life-saving.”
Biden also objected to other language in the bill barring money meant to transfer detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to some foreign countries and into the United States.