FIRST ON FOX: A new House GOP bill would make President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender troops in the military a permanent federal policy.
Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., is introducing the legislation this week and told Fox News Digital that his office has been in contact with the Trump administration on the measure.
“What we had with this trans movement was we had a bunch of people coming in, signing a six-year contract, and then starting the surgeries and starting the hormone replacements … they weren’t fit for service, so they spent four or five years on the taxpayer’s dime getting these surgeries and these chemicals and all this stuff, and then by the time they could really actually serve, they were ready to get out,” Moore told Fox News Digital.
He said the bill would benefit both taxpayers in funding the military and overall recruitment to the armed forces.
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“I think in many ways the taxpayers get a much bigger bang for their buck, No. 1,” said Moore, a veteran. “And No. 2, I think that if I’m looking at joining, these guys are really focused on fighting, and if I’m in the foxhole with these guys, these are people I’ve trained with, they’re capable. You’ve got to have that on a battlefield.”
A source familiar with his office’s discussions with the administration showed Fox News Digital an email that suggested tacit approval of the bill from the White House Office of Management and Budget, Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security and National Security Council.
The bill is titled the Readiness Over Wokeness Act, according to draft legislation previewed by Fox News Digital.
The text said the bill would “prohibit individuals with gender dysphoria from serving as members of the Armed Forces.”
It would enact a similar ban on people with “a history of gender-affirming care including cross-sex hormone therapy or sex reassignment or genital reconstruction surgery as treatment for gender dysphoria or in pursuit of a sex transition.”
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Trump signed an executive order banning transgender people from serving in the U.S. military shortly after he was sworn in for his second term.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth followed suit by enacting the order, including discharging current transgender personnel.
The ban was challenged in court but recently upheld by the Supreme Court this month in a decisive victory for Trump.
“No More Trans [at the Defense Department],” Hegseth wrote on X soon after the order came down.
Trump instituted a similar policy during his first term, though it was later reversed by former President Joe Biden.
But it would be much harder for a future Democrat administration to reverse Moore’s bill if it passed the House and Senate and was signed into law by Trump.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for additional comment.