US Congress passes defence bill banning gender care for minors

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

The $884 billion National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) -- rubber-stamped by the Democratic-majority Senate a week after clearing the Republican House of Representatives -- gives a 14.5 percent pay increase to junior enlisted troops 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 programme from covering gender-affirming care for children of service members if it results in “sterilisation.”

“Tax dollars should not support procedures and treatments that could permanently harm and sterilise 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 trangender.

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