House Passes $895B Defense Bill With Ban on Transgender Care for Minors

newsweek.com:

Senate, where additional spending proposals are expected to face scrutiny.Lawmakers have hailed its provisions for military pay increases, including a 14.5 percent boost for junior enlisted personnel and a 4.5 percent raise for others, as critical to improving the quality of life for service members and addressing a growing wage gap with the private sector.Supporters emphasized the bill's focus on addressing systemic challenges faced by military families.

Republican Representative Mike Rogers of Alaska, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, noted the difficult living conditions experienced by many junior enlisted members, some of whom rely on food assistance programs to make ends meet.

The bill also allocates funding for improved childcare and housing."No service member should have to live in squalid conditions, and no military family should have to rely on food stamps to feed their children, but that's exactly what many of our service members are experiencing, especially the junior enlisted," Rogers said. "This bill goes a long way to fixing that."However, the bill also includes a ban on transgender medical treatments for children of military members if such treatment could result in sterilization.Despite bipartisan support for much of the bill, a provision prohibiting TRICARE health plans from covering transgender-related treatments for minors has drawn backlash from Democrats.

The restriction includes bans on procedures and treatments that could result in sterilization, such as certain hormone therapies.Democratic Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, argued that these treatments have proven effective in reducing anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation among transgender youth."These treatments changed their lives and in many cases saved their lives," Smith said. "And in this bill, we decided we're going to bar servicemembers' children from having access to that."In addition, Smith estimated that.