Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., is pressing House Speaker Mike Johnson to remove a provision from the annual defense bill Congress is expected to approve this month that would ban gender dysphoria treatments for transgender military children, The Hill reported.
"Blanketly denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong," Smith said in a statement Sunday. "This provision injected a level of partisanship not traditionally seen in defense bills. Speaker Johnson is pandering to the most extreme elements of his party to ensure that he retains his speakership. In doing so, he has upended what had been a bipartisan process."
The provision in the National Defense Authorization Act, if passed, would prohibit Tricare from covering "medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization" for beneficiaries under 18.
Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Saturday he's still undecided on how he will vote on the bill, which he helped negotiate.
"It's the Republicans taking advantage of a partisan wedge issue," Smith told Politico.
"I urge the Speaker to abandon this current effort and let the House bring forward a bill — reflective of the traditional bipartisan process — that supports our troops and their families, invests in innovation and modernization, and doesn't attack the transgender community," Smith said in a release.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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