US congress passes defense bill banning gender care for minors

The US Congress approved its mammoth annual defense budget on Wednesday, raising troops' pay while blocking funding of some gender-affirming care for transgender children of service members.

The $884 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) -- rubber-stamped by the Democratic-majority Senate a week after clearing the Republican House of Representatives -- gives junior enlisted troops a 14.5 percent pay increase and 4.5 percent for other personnel.

But talks over the 1,800-page-plus text were complicated by a last-minute Republican intervention to prevent the military's health program from covering gender-affirming care for children of service members if it results in "sterilization."

"Tax dollars should not support procedures and treatments that could permanently harm and sterilize young people," House Speaker Mike Johnson said after the bill passed the lower chamber.

"This year's NDAA takes a critical and necessary step to protect the children of American service members."

Democratic Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin complained that the measure would strip vital health care away from an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 children of service members who are transgender.

"It eliminates the ability of military families to work with medical professionals and make their own decisions about the health care needs of their children," he said.

Gender-affirming health care for children is just one of multiple fronts in the so-called "culture wars" that polarize US politics and divide the country, with Republicans using the issue as a cudgel against Democrats in November's elections.

The funding restriction angered progressives and prompted Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, to oppose the legislation.

The NDAA -- a bill that Congress has sent to the president's desk without fail every year since 1961 -- increases the budget by one percent and, with funding from other sources, brings total planned spending to just under $900 billion for 2025.

"This NDAA isn't perfect, but it still includes some very good things that Democrats fought for," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.