Weekly Spotlight: Any opportunity to attack
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Congressional negotiations on the National Defense Authorization Act are under way. But included in the recently passed House version of the bill are several hateful provisions targeting the transgender community. Two restrictions bar access to medically necessary gender affirming health care for service members and their families.
Extremists in the House have been looking for any opportunity to advance their anti-trans agenda for years. The latest tool in their sweeping attack is the defense appropriations bill. Any claims that these measures are intended to protect service members are nonsense.
The House version of the NDAA will have to be reconciled with the Senate version, and it’s critical that congressional leaders use that opportunity to excise these harmful amendments from the final legislation. If they fail to do so, President Biden must veto this year’s NDAA. Not doing so wouldn’t just harm the transgender community, it would gravely undermine our national security.
ANALYSIS
Trouble at the Social Security Administration Watchdog
The office of inspector general struggles amid reports of widespread staff dissatisfaction, whistleblower retaliation, and abuses of power.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Lawmakers cannot allow the war in Ukraine to become another pathway for contractors to pursue excess profits at the expense of the Pentagon and taxpayers.”
Danielle Brian, Executive Director, on the Intercept
OVERHEARD
ONE LINERS
“Big defense contractors have pretty deep pockets. ... There are probably a lot of these smaller companies that want to break into this market, that are trying to figure out ways that they can attract some of those high-profile, former Pentagon officials”
Dan Grazier, Senior Defense Policy Fellow, in Defense News
“Practically speaking, I don’t think there will be an opportunity where recess is happening for 10 days without a pro forma session.”
Faith Williams, Director of the Effective and Accountable Government Program, in Bloomberg Law
“I don’t have a lot of faith in the [DHS] review boards. ... It’s kind of a black box.”
Katherine Hawkins, Senior Legal Analyst, in the Intercept
“The proposal lacks strong enforcement language to hold the Pentagon back from pursuing programs that fail to complete preliminary design reviews, or fail the reviews completely.”
Julia Gledhill, Analyst for the Center for Defense Information, in Responsible Statecraft
“There are questions about this murky situation that need answers. ... When a company with government business has an arrangement with a politically connected person, it can easily look like the company’s aim is influence peddling.”
Nick Schwellenbach, Senior Investigator, in the Daily Beast
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