Graeme Sloan/SIPA USA/AP
On Sunday, US lawmakers released the annual defense policy bill authorizing a record $901 billion in national defense spending in 2026. The bill was somehow $8 billion more than President Trump requested, and bans transgender women from competing in sports at military universities.
The 3,086-page bill states that the secretary of defense will ensure military academies do not permit a person “whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls.” The text codifies “sex” as “a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
The bill has already been negotiated between Republicans and Democrats and is set to go to a House vote this week, likely leaving little room for significant changes.
But the new version does drop the ban on Defense Department funding on gender-affirming surgeries. Previous versions passed by both the House and the Senate incorporated the ban.
The House bill approved in September also prohibited gender transition services for family members through the Exceptional Family Member Program: “No gender transition procedures, including surgery or medication, may be provided to a minor dependent child through an EFMP.”
Last year’s National Defense Authorization Act restricted TRICARE, the health care program that provides civilian health benefits for US military personnel, their dependents, and retirees, from covering “certain medical procedures for children that could result in sterilization.”
The NDAA is must-pass legislation as it sets the defense budget and determines the policies it will apply to each year. NDAA laws from previous fiscal years thus have a knock-on effect, opening the door for lawmakers to flood the new bill with anti-trans provisions that would likely not pass on their own and force Democrats to block them while on limited time.
The House bill that was passed in September contains several anti-LGBT amendments in addition to the ban on “gender transition procedures” for servicemembers’ children. Many of Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-S.C.) proposed additions were adopted—including prohibiting coverage for “gender-related medical treatment,” defined to include puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries, as well as mental health care for transgender young people and requiring the use of single-sex facilities such as restrooms and locker rooms according to their “reproductive system.”
Every year’s NDAA will likely prompt discussions on what anti-transgender provisions could be forced through. As my colleagues Madison Pauly and Henry Carnell wrote in January, President Donald Trump is restricting access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth. This has led institutions like the NCAA and government departments such as the Department of Veterans Affairs to bow to his orders. The NDAA is just one piece of this coordinated effort.
