US approves defense budget with restrictions for transgender people
Kyiv • UNN
The US House of Representatives has approved an $892.6 billion defense bill that includes a pay raise for service members. The document also includes bans that restrict the rights of transgender service members.
The US House of Representatives approved a defense bill worth almost $893 billion. Along with increased funding for the army and military salaries, the document included prohibitions that restrict the rights of transgender service members, writes The New York Times, reports UNN.
Details
On Wednesday (September 10 - ed.), the House of Representatives passed a defense policy bill totaling $892.6 billion, which provides for increased military readiness and increased salaries for American service members, while prohibiting gender-affirming medical care for service members and rejecting efforts to protect service members' access to abortion services.
The bill was supported by 231 votes. 196 voted against.
Purpose of the bill
The initial goal of the bill was to bring order to the Pentagon's operations and update approaches to defining and meeting military needs - from procurement to contracts and supply.
The Pentagon's current procurement process is failing our fighters. It can take 10 years between identifying a need and providing capabilities to a fighter. By then, the threat will have changed, costs will have increased, and the solution will be outdated.
The House Representative from Washington State, a leading Democrat on the committee, stated that this bill "puts us in a better position to address a number of growing threats and challenges." This includes accelerating the approval of defense contractor proposals, which can often take more than a year, to 90 days.
A 3.8% pay raise for all service members was also considered, as well as an increase in the monthly payment some service members receive when deployment leads to prolonged separation from family or dependents.
Restrictions
Despite the bill's perceived partisan nature, it has garnered support from both conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats. The document's goal is to restore Congress's control over military decisions after decades of presidents from both parties conducting operations without legislative approval.
Thus, the bill will repeal the old authorizations for the use of force in Iraq in 1991 and 2003, which were later used to justify numerous military actions. Recent operations in Iran, the Caribbean, and other countries without consultation with Congress have again raised the discussion about the limits of presidential powers.
Some of the restrictions were aimed at transgender service members and their families, consistent with the Trump administration's efforts to remove transgender service members from the military, the publication writes.
South Carolina Republicans Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman pushed through a number of restrictions, including on care and bathroom use. During speeches in the House of Representatives, Ms. Mace spoke harshly about transgender people, calling them "weird," "freaks," and "mentally unstable."
Democrats criticized such actions, calling them a distraction from the bill's main goal - supporting service members and their families so they can perform their duties more effectively.
Like any parent, if a service member's child cannot get the care they need, they will be distracted from their mission. So ultimately, this ban will harm our military readiness and likely cause service members to leave the military.
Military aid to Ukraine
Despite Republican resistance to military aid to Ukraine, the defense bill also allocates $400 million for the Pentagon's military support program for Ukraine. The House of Representatives rejected a proposal by Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene to cut this funding.
In addition, lawmakers introduced a requirement for the Pentagon to notify Congress if military aid to Ukraine, approved by lawmakers, is canceled or suspended. This is intended to restore congressional oversight after the Department of Defense suspended supplies over the summer without prior notification to lawmakers.
Ban on issuing own digital currency
The defense bill also contains a separate provision prohibiting the Federal Reserve from issuing its own central bank digital currency. This was a demand from conservatives earlier in the year in exchange for their support for the cryptocurrency bill, as they believe that a government digital currency could violate user privacy.