Rep. Vicky Hartzler is making another attempt this week to curb transgender military service after leading the GOP charge last month as House Armed Services hammered out its annual defense policy bill.
The Missouri Republican has filed a proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would bar the military from providing gender transition surgeries to troops, which are now covered medical procedures under the Pentagon’s year-old policy of integration.
The amendment could get a vote later this week when the NDAA is expected to reach the floor.
Hartzler delivered a long impassioned speech against transgender service and late last month floated a different amendment abolishing integration during debate before Armed Services, where she is chairwoman of an oversight and investigations panel.
“Is it fair to recruit our sons and daughters to fight for our nation and instead of being able to focus on the enemy subjecting them to disturbing distractions of very personal privacy issues involving sleeping and showering with individuals born of the opposite sex?” Hartzler said at the time. “It is not. Military service is a privilege, not a right.”
She voluntarily withdrew that legislation repealing the right of transgender troops to serve openly, a historic but controversial move made last summer by the Obama administration.
The new proposed NDAA amendment would bar the military from spending any money on treatment related to gender transition, other than mental healthcare.
Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., is proposing an amendment to the defense policy bill that would commend transgender troops on their military service.
The Pentagon has ordered the integration of transgender troops currently serving but is proceeding more cautiously on recruiting those service members.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis decided to defer any transgender recruiting until January after service chiefs raised concerns. The previous administration set a July 1 deadline to begin the recruiting.
