The house will be in order lawmakers landed on a
compromise for their annual defense funding bill. A sweeping
$895 billion package. There's a lot of positive things
in the National Defense Authorization Act that were negotiated in
a bipartisan way. One of them, a 14.5%
pay raise for junior service members and a 4.5% increase
for others. No military family should have to rely
on food stamps to feed their Children. But Democrats
including New Mexico congresswoman Teresa Ledger Fernandez oppose a last
minute ad by House Speaker Mike Johnson. It would
block gender affirming care for Children of military families.
I don't know why we colins keep launching culture wars
when the NDA A should focus on preventing Mars.
Some Republicans say this provision doesn't have to be in
the package since president elect Donald Trump plans to ban
gender affirming care across the board anyway. But other
GOP members like Georgia congressman, Austin Scott support the
effort and say Democrats are just using this as an
excuse to vote against the overall package. We're talking
about Children under the age of 18 and we are
saying that they, that we are not going to
allow a surgical procedure on them. That could lead
a result in sterilization. Democrats though celebrated the removal
of other controversial GOP measures from the bill, including
those related to abortion rights and diversity, equity and
inclusion policies. And that's a victory in Washington.
I'm Jesse Tenor.