Defense bill includes massive raise for troops, sets up clash over transgender treatments

Congressional negotiators have released a compromise defense bill that extends a big pay raise to junior troops and prohibits the use of military health insurance for “gender dysphoria” treatments for transgender minors.

The ban on coverage for transgender treatments in the National Defense Authorization Act rankled a lead Democratic negotiator, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, who accused House Speaker Mike Johnson of injecting a partisan issue into a traditionally bipartisan bill.

The conflict could complicate the House vote if Democrats revolt over the transgender issue and a significant number of majority Republicans reject the bill overall.

“Denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong,” Mr. Smith said. “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.”

It’s unclear how many Democrats will dig in over the provision, especially after Republicans hammered their campaign rivals over transgender issues and won control of the White House and both chambers of Congress in the Nov. 5 elections.

Both parties praised other aspects of the NDAA for fiscal 2025, including a 14.5% raise for junior enlisted service members and a 4.5% pay raise for all other service members. Lawmakers feared junior military members were struggling to buy necessities, especially given high inflation.

The White House opposed such a sizable increase over cost concerns.

The $895 billion bill outlined the Defense Department’s spending priorities and came in under mandated budget caps despite a push in the Democratic-controlled Senate to go above the limits. The NDAA is a critical annual effort that sets the table for appropriators to provide funding.

“The NDAA has been passed without fail for decades,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said in a recent floor speech.

The 2025 bill eliminates copays for contraceptives and sets up a three-year trial program for cryopreservation, which involves freezing eggs or sperm for later use.

It also includes millions of dollars for new military housing, child care centers and playgrounds.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican, released the NDAA text on Saturday with Mr. Smith, the ranking Democrat, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, Rhode Island Democrat, and Sen. Roger F. Wicker, Mississippi Republican.

Mr. Wicker said he was proud of “much of the NDAA” but wanted a bigger spending boost to address the “most dangerous moment since World War II.”

“Not only does this NDAA thwart the bipartisan will of the Senate, but it signifies and profound missed opportunity to strengthen President-elect [Donald] Trump’s hand when he takes office,” Mr. Wicker said.

Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said the bill will expand U.S.-Israeli military exercises, bolster Indo-Pacific allies to provide for Taiwan’s defense and support the deployment of the National Guard to intercept illegal immigrants and drug traffickers at the border.

“This legislation includes House-passed provisions to restore our focus on military lethality and to end the radical woke ideology being imposed on our military by permanently banning transgender medical treatment for minors and countering antisemitism,” Mr. Johnson said.

Mr. Smith urged the speaker to remove the ban on coverage for transgender treatments for minors. Whether it becomes a sticking point this week will be more evident after the House Rules Committee meets to debate the parameters for a floor vote.

“I am not going to judge a Democrat who votes one way or the other on this. There’s a lot of good stuff in the bill,” Mr. Smith said in an interview with the Breaking Defense publication. “So I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, you have to vote for this, or you have to vote against it.’ I’ll make my own personal decision, and other members will as well.”