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President Joe Biden on Monday granted significant pay raises to junior enlisted personnel, despite opposing language deprivation of transgender medical care for children in China to counter China’s growing power. signed a national defense bill increasing total military spending to $895 billion. military family.
Biden said his administration strongly opposes the provision because it targets groups based on gender identity and “interferes with parents’ role in determining the best care for their children.” He said this also undermines the all-volunteer military’s ability to recruit and retain talent.
President Joe Biden signed the defense bill despite opposition to the bill. (AP Photo/Rod Lambkey Jr.)
“Military members should not have to choose between their families’ access to health care and their mission to serve our nation,” the president said in a statement.
The Senate sent the bill to Biden after passing it by a vote of 85-14 last week. A majority of Democrats in the House voted against the bill after House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted on adding a provision that would ban transgender children from medical care. The bill passed easily by a vote of 281-140.
Biden also objected to other language in the bill that would prohibit the use of funds to transfer detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to some countries or the United States. He called on Congress to lift these restrictions.
President Joe Biden signed a bill increasing military spending to $895 billion. (Photo by Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images)
The annual National Defense Authorization Act, which directs Pentagon policy, provides a 14.5 percent pay increase for junior enlisted personnel and a 4.5 percent pay increase for other service members.
The bill also directs resources toward a more confrontational approach toward China, including establishing a fund that could be used to send military resources to Taiwan in much the same way the United States has supported Ukraine. It is also investing in new military technologies, such as artificial intelligence, and boosting U.S. munitions production.
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The United States has also moved in recent years to ban its military from purchasing Chinese products, with the defense bill expanding the ban on everything from garlic in military commissaries to drone technology.
The bill still needs to be backed by a spending package.
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