Decries anti-transgender provision included in the legislation

Washington (December 18, 2024) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) released the following statement after voting against the $895 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025.

“Today, the Senate voted to give the Pentagon a near trillion-dollar spending package while American families struggle to afford rent, prescriptions, food, and child care. While I am glad this package includes increased wages for enlisted servicemembers and improves access to reproductive health care, the cost to the American people of passing this bill in the form of denied rights and wasteful spending is simply too great.

“Republicans rail that we need to cut government spending – for food assistance, for health care, for environmental protection– yet they are showering their defense contractor cronies with this bloated budget. Instead of enriching the already gold-plated defense industry, let’s enrich the lives of workers and families with support for education, Medicare and Medicaid, small business, and housing assistance.

“The NDAA also includes language that will force members of the military to choose between service to their country and care for their children. This will hurt trans and nonbinary people, their families, and our country. We need more health care access and less political interference in decisions that should be left to patients and their providers. Trans rights are human rights and health care is a human right, but this defense budget stands for neither principle.

“Year after year, Congress continues to expand military spending while denying investments in the programs that will truly build a safer, healthier future for working-and-middle class families. I cannot support this raw deal for the American people.”

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