The Republican-Controlled U.S. House of Representative Passes Major Bill 216-211 - Now Federal Employees File Complaint...
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation by a vote of 216-211 that would criminalize the provision of gender transition treatments to minors, including surgeries and hormone therapies, with penalties of up to ten years in federal prison for providers. The measure, advanced nearly entirely along party lines, was pushed through the chamber by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who had conditioned her support for a separate defense policy bill on bringing her legislation to the floor.
According to floor remarks by Greene, the bill fulfills one of President Donald Trump’s major campaign pledges and seeks to codify aspects of his executive order banning gender-affirming medical procedures for minors. During debate, Greene displayed a poster board image of a child who had undergone such a surgery and stated, “Most Americans agree that kids just need to grow up before they do anything radical, like a mastectomy on a 15-year-old girl.”
The legislation is unlikely to advance in the Senate, where it would require bipartisan support to proceed. Civil rights organizations have described the bill as among the most extreme anti-trans measures ever considered by Congress.
Separately, the Trump administration is facing a formal complaint from a group of federal employees over a new policy that eliminates coverage for gender-related healthcare in federal health insurance programs. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced in August that coverage would cease for “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex traits through medical interventions” in plans for federal employees and U.S. Postal Service workers, with the change taking effect Thursday.
The Human Rights Campaign filed the grievance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Thursday on behalf of the employees, arguing that the policy constitutes sex-based discrimination. Human Rights Campaign Foundation President Kelley Robinson stated, “This policy is not about cost or care—it is about driving transgender people and people with transgender spouses, children, and dependents out of the federal workforce.”
The complaint includes statements from four current federal workers at the State Department, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Postal Service. One Postal Service employee reported that her daughter, diagnosed with gender dysphoria, has been advised by doctors to begin puberty blockers and possibly hormone replacement therapy, treatments that would no longer be covered.
The workers are asserting the claim on behalf of themselves and a proposed “class of similarly situated federal employees.”
May you like
The OPM policy is part of broader Trump administration efforts to restrict access to gender-transition care, particularly for minors. In December, the Department of Health and Human Services proposed rules that would prohibit such care for minors and deny Medicare and Medicaid funding to hospitals providing those services to children. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has characterized gender-affirming care for minors as “malpractice,” a position that conflicts with recommendations from major medical organizations including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The developments reflect ongoing partisan divisions over parental rights, federal healthcare policy, and the role of government in regulating medical interventions for gender dysphoria. The House bill and the OPM policy align with executive actions issued earlier in the administration, including measures aimed at limiting what the White House has described as “gender ideology” in federal programs.
