The US House of Representatives successfully passed the GOP-led budget reconciliation package (also known as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill”) last week before Memorial Day. Among its many victories, the legislation included a prohibition on funding for transgender treatments through Medicaid, Obamacare, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). We know that these surgeries irreparably damage young bodies and inflict a myriad of psychological and physical damage on otherwise healthy individuals. In many states, including South Dakota, it’s illegal to perform such medical interventions on minors – why have our tax dollars continued to fund these barbaric treatments for children in other states? We’re incredibly thankful that Republican leadership took initiative on this important issue to ensure our hard-earned money is not enabling and promoting these dangerous so-called “treatments.”

What is Budget Reconciliation?

Every year, Congress has to agree on how the government will spend its money. Normally, it takes 60 votes in the Senate to get anything major passed. But with a special process called “budget reconciliation,” they can do it with just 51 votes. Republicans currently hold a simple majority with 53 seats in the Senate, making the budget reconciliation process ideal.  

What’s in the Bill?

The House of Representatives has already passed this budget bill, which would do the following:

• Increase the Child Tax Credit to $2,500 per child
• Establish optional $1,000 savings accounts for newborns
• Strengthen paid family leave provisions
• Provide tax relief for middle and low-income Social Security recipients by allowing an additional $4,000 deduction on taxable benefits
• Reduce taxes by approximately 15% for Americans earning between $30,000 and $80,000

“This bill will be the single most pro-small business, pro-family, and pro-American worker legislation ever,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declared.

The bill also contains provisions to defund Big Abortion for the next 10 years and expand school choice. Read more about those measures HERE and HERE.

Cutting Funding for Transgender Treatments

Section 44125 of the reconciliation package will prohibit federal Medicaid and CHIP funding for gender transition procedures for adults and children alike. While adults have the freedom to make their own medical decisions (even if they are shortsighted and deny science), American taxpayers should never be forced to bankroll cosmetic, medically unnecessary procedures for transgender adults. 

The amendment specifies that Medicaid and CHIP would not cover the cost of procedures performed with the express purpose of “ intentionally changing the body of such individual (including by disrupting the body’s development, inhibiting its natural functions, or modifying its appearance) to no longer correspond to the individual’s sex.” This includes sterilization, puberty blocking drugs, hormone treatments, and “any plastic, cosmetic, or aesthetic surgery that feminizes or masculinizes the facial or other body features of an individual.”

Texas Representative Dan Crenshaw introduced Section 44125, saying the measure is “long overdue” and noting that “gender transition procedures are the lobotomy of our generation.” 

Section 44201 of the bill prohibits coverage of gender transition procedures as an “essential health benefit” under the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare).

House Republicans are celebrating the measures as some of the reconciliation package’s major wins: 

“We banked a lot of wins in this bill,” Rep. Eric Burlison shared. “We were able to defund Planned Parenthood. That is massive. That’s huge. Something that I never thought this town would be able to accomplish. We were able to eliminate the funding through Medicaid for transgender surgeries. We were able to reinvigorate our industry sector and our energy sector, [and] extend the Trump tax cuts, which are huge to our economy.”

These provisions take a step toward accomplishing the mandate laid out in President Trump’s January 28 Executive Order:

“Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding,” the Order reads. “Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”

These measures are a win for common sense and decency, and reflect the common desire of American taxpayers – that our hard-earned dollars are put to good use. Medicare, Obamacare, and CHIP never should have covered these treatments to begin with. Please join us in praying that the Senate will pass the provisions as written and help protect children from the radical transgender movement.