Biden signs defense bill despite objections to ban transgender health care for military children

President Joe Biden On Monday, he signed a defense bill authorizing significant pay increases for junior enlisted service members, aimed at countering China’s growing power and increasing global military spending to $895 billion, despite his objections to the linguistic exclusion of transgender medical treatment coverage for children in military families.

Biden said his administration strongly opposes the provision because it targets a group based on gender identity and “interferes with parents’ roles in determining the best care for their children.” He said it also undermines the all-volunteer military’s ability to recruit and retain talent.

President Joe Biden signed the defense bill into law despite objections to the legislation. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

“No service member should have to decide between access to their family’s medical care and their call to serve our nation,” the president said in a statement.

The Senate referred the bill to Biden after passing it last week by a vote of 85-14. In the House, most Democrats voted against the bill after House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted on adding the provision to ban transgender medical care for children. The legislation passed easily by a vote of 281-140.

Biden also objected to other language in the bill that prohibits the use of money intended to transfer detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to some foreign countries and to the United States. He urged Congress to lift these restrictions.

President Joe Biden signed a bill that increases military spending to $895 billion. (Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images)

The annual defense authorization bill, which directs pentagon policy, offers a 14.5 percent pay raise for junior enlisted service members and a 4.5 percent raise for others.

The legislation also directs resources toward a more confrontational approach with China, including establishing a fund that could be used to send military resources to Taiwan in the same way the US has supported Ukraine. It also invests in new military technologies, including artificial intelligence, and bolsters US ammunition production.

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The United States has also moved in recent years to ban the military from buying Chinese products, and the defense bill extended that with bans on Chinese products from garlic to military commissions to drone technology.

The legislation still needs to be backed by a spending package.