The Congressional Equality Caucus (CEC) slammed House Republicans for passing a military spending bill that would prevent veterans from receiving gender-affirming care. The House passed the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act in a vote of 218 to 206, with 216 Republicans and 2 Democrats voting in favor and 206 Democrats voting against it. The Democrats who voted in favor of the bill were Rep. Jared Golden of Maine and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington. Related VA doctors can deny care to Democrats, unmarried veterans under new rule The disturbing and unethical new policy is expected to impact women and LGBTQ+ veterans most. The 94-page bill states plainly that none of the funds made available by this Act may be used for surgical procedures or hormone therapies for the purposes of gender affirming care. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Instead of prioritizing the needs of our nations veterans, Republicans in Congress used this appropriations bill to take another swing at transgender veterans,gay Rep. Mark Takano, CEC chair and ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, said in a statement.Takano explained that the administration has already rescinded a policy that ensured transgender veterans could receive healthcare without facing discrimination and announced they were phasing out trans veterans treatments for gender dysphoria.Republicans are not only working to permanently codify this ban on medically necessary care for trans veterans, but also expand it with this bill, he said. This is part of a broader effort to worsen the quality of care veterans receive.The Congressional Equality Caucus strongly condemns this bill and remains committed to keeping its anti-LGBTQI+ provisions from becoming law.The bill comes after the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently rescinded a February 2013 directive requiring it to provide clinically appropriate care (including preferred names andpronouns) to transgender and intersex veterans. The directive said trans vets who were currently receiving hormone therapy could continue to do so, but it forbade any new vets from receiving the same treatment. In response, Takano and 68 other Democratic members of Congress signed a letterto VA Secretary Doug Collins calling the new policy an affront to transgender veterans.Your decision to pit veterans against each other is also shameful, the letter continues. Your position requires you to support all veterans, regardless of their identity or medical needs. Your attempt to portray cutting off medical care to some veterans as an action to support other veterans is especially hypocritical, after VA has attempted to fire thousands of employees, many of them veterans themselves, that support the needs of all members of the veteran community. Additionally, the VA has stopped allowing trans veterans access to single-sex facilities, like restrooms, that match their gender identity. VA employees have also been told to remove trans-affirming materials, any mentions of gender identity from veteran health records, and even Pride flags.These actions intentionally create an environment that is unnecessarily hostile toward transgender veterans, which will undermine efforts to provide these veterans with the services and care they need, the letter adds.The letter asks for Collins to rescind the new policy on gender-affirming care and to answer questions about the costs of the departments gender-affirming medical care, whether the VA consulted medical professionals before changing its policies, how the VA will enforce its anti-trans restroom ban, and what the VA is doing to support trans veterans mental health and wellbeing in light of its other recent anti-trans actions.Another massive budget bill, named by Republicans as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), would take health care away from many trans people in its current form. The version passed last month by the House bans on Medicaid and CHIP paying for gender-affirming care for transgender people and also banned policies sold in health care exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) from covering gender-affirming care.But the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled last week that these three measures violated the Byrd Rule, which only allows budget measures to pass under reconciliation,Axiosreports. This means that the Senate will need to secure the support of at least seven Democrats to pass the bill with these measures included.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.