Trans Healthcare Coverage Ban Stripped From Negotiated Military NDAA Bill In Sunday Night Surprise

Anti-DEI and sports ban provisions for the military still exist in the bill, but the removal of a health care provision is a major victory for transgender people in congressional legislation.

Photo by Darren Halstead on Unsplash

Late Sunday night, congressional leaders released the negotiated text of the National Defense Authorization Act. The House and Senate had each already passed their own versions—both with anti-LGBTQ+ provisions, including a sweeping ban on Defense Department funding for gender-affirming surgeries. That measure, which would have compounded the barrage of anti-trans actions already underway in the military under Donald Trump’s command, was widely expected to survive into the final bill. But in a surprise twist, the negotiated text dropped the surgical funding ban altogether—marking the second time in recent weeks that major anti-trans riders have collapsed during the congressional process. Though the final version still includes anti-DEI language and a transgender sports ban for those enrolled at military academies, defeating the surgical funding ban is a significant and unexpected victory.

Earlier in the shutdown fight, the National Defense Authorization Act emerged as a major secondary flashpoint between House and Senate negotiators. Many LGBTQ+ observers watched its trajectory closely for signs of whether Democrats would fold on transgender rights. On the House side, a slate of amendments from Rep. Nancy Mace passed into the bill—targeting transgender service members and dependents across military health insurance, athletics, bathrooms, pride flags, and more. The Senate side did not have most of those measures, but a major provision remained: a ban on funding for transgender-related surgeries, a policy that would have affected not only service members and their families but potentially any company with a military contract, blocking their insurance plans from covering transgender surgeries. Stunningly, despite parallel provisions having passed in both chambers, the final negotiated bill includes neither. Lawmakers did not split the difference; they removed the surgery ban entirely.

Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina, one of the chief architects of the anti-trans provisions in the House version of the bill, posted immediately after the text was released, writing, “NDAA is out, furiously reading through to see which of our Amendments made it in, and which did not.” In the hours that followed, her account stayed conspicuously silent about the defeat of her anti-trans amendments.

The defeat of the anti-trans health-care coverage ban is not the only win in the NDAA. Though the bill still contains anti-DEI language and an anti-trans sports ban, even the sports ban has been partially defanged. An earlier version barred “a person whose sex is male” from participating in “programs or activities at the military service academies that are designated for women or girls.” In the negotiated bill, however, the restriction applies only to persons “enrolled at such an academy,” meaning it will not apply to transgender athletes from other schools who come to compete. That shift matters. In practice, transgender military members are already being targeted for removal under Trump’s military ban, and a sports ban limited to enrolled cadets is far narrower than the previous proposal, which would have applied to the spaces themselves and swept in anyone competing there.

The negotiated NDAA bill comes after a separate set of small but important wins in congress on transgender issues. After the continuing resolution was passed, news quickly emerged that the negotiated continuing resolution contained no anti-transgender riders. What’s more, separate full-year funding bills in Veterans Affairs and Military Construction, the Legislative Branch, and Agriculture had all of their anti-LGBTQ+ riders removed as well.

It is important to note that the fight is not over for both the negotiated NDAA and appropriations bills that are moving their way through congress. The negotiated bill must still be passed in an identical fashion in the House and Senate. Furthermore, in appropriations bills, the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education package, which remains loaded on the House side with sweeping anti-transgender riders but has not been negotiated yet. The most alarming provision would ban “any federal funds” from supporting gender-affirming care at any age. If passed and interpreted broadly—and consistent with how Trump has already wielded his power against youth care—it could strip federal funding from hospitals that treat transgender people, a threat that has already pushed 21 hospitals to end care for trans youth, even in blue states.

For transgender people though, the surprise removal of a major anti-trans provision from the NDAA will be a welcome piece of news.

You can view the negotiated NDAA bill here.