Democrats wrestle over chance to kill the ban on transgender care in Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

Despite being in the minority, Democrats have a chance to remove a provision from President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that would prevent Medicaid dollars from being used to cover gender-affirming care.’

The questions is, will they?

The issue emerges more than eight months after a 2024 election from which Democrats are still digging out and also working out their messaging about how to defend the rights of transgender people without being painted as too radical by Republicans.

In the presidential race, Trump and his associated super PACS hit Kamala Harris in ads for supporting taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for inmates, ending the ad by saying “Kamala is for They/Them. President Trump is for you.”

Republicans also hit Democrats in down-ballot races specifically on the subject of allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.

That might be why when The Independent asked some top Democratic senators about whether they would try to strike the language from Republicans’ bill, even some of the most liberal voices said they did not know .

“I don’t know,” Sen. Chris Murphy told The Independent last week when asked if it could the strict criteria the Senate Parliamentarian would subject the bill to.

Sen. Patty Murray, the vice chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, simply told The Independent, “I haven’t seen the language.”

Murray later clarified on Bluesky that she opposed the ban in Medicaid.

“I had not seen the language but let me be clear: I support stripping out as much from the bill as Democrats can, including this ban.”

But even liberal Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren dodged the question.

“I haven’t seen it, “ she told The Independent last week when asked if she would raise a point of order on it. When asked if she was worried about it, she repeated, “I haven’t seen it.”

The avoidance shows how Democrats are in the position of being on the defensive on an issue where Republicans think they can win against Democrats, while at the same time defending a vulnerable population the party has long said it would support.

Some Democrats have said they would support efforts to challenge the language. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who is the first openly gay person elected to the Senate, told The Independent earlier this month that she assumed Democrats would but that she had not seen the details of the legislation

“What I would say substantively is that, this is, again, talking about taking away people's health care, and taking parents’ ability to decide what kind of health care their children need,” she said.

The Republican bill in the House that passed through the House Energy & Commerce Committee banned Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance dollars from being used to provide gender-affirming care for minors. In a last-minute addition before the bill went to a vote on the floor, an amendment struck the term “for minors” from the legislation, meaning it would put in place a blanket ban on gender-affirming care for all transgender people.

The legislation would also prohibit coverage of gender transition care as an “essential health benefit” offered by health care exchanges created in the 2010 Affordable Care Act signed by former president Barack Obama. The Senate Finance Committee released the health care part of its version that is almost identical to the House version except it does not include the “essential health benefit” provision.

“I obviously think these issues are private and personal,” Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee which is in charge of health care, told The Independent.

Republicans, who have only 53 seats in the Senate, plan to pass the bill through the process of budget reconciliation. That would allow them to pass the bill with a simple majority and avoid a filibuster as long as the legislation relates to the budget and federal spending.

As part of the process, the legislation goes through the “Byrd Bath,” named for late Senator Robert Byrd, where the Senate Parliamentarian determines whether parts of the legislation relate directly to the budget or are “merely incidental.”

Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, who sponsored the amendment, told The Independent that he believes it will comply with the rules because it saves taxpayer dollars.

But if the the Senate parliamentarian rules that part of the legislation does not comply with reconciliation rules, the majority party can still bring the amendment on the floor, but the minority party can raise a point of order. If Republicans want to waive the point of order, it would require three-fifths of the Senate, or 60 votes, vote to waive it.

Sen Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said that he thought Democrats would likely challenge it.

“Well, we're certainly taking a look at all of the pieces of policy that don't belong in this type of bill,” he told The Independent. “You don't put policy in there. That sure sounds like policy to me.”

It also comes after when Republicans regularly criticized Democrats in campaign advertisements about allowing transgender athletes in women’s sports.

Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who recently told The Dispatch that he opposes allowing transgender athletes in some women’s sports, told The Independent he thought that Democrats would challenge the Medicaid ban.

“I think it's outside the boundaries of reconciliation,” Gallego told The Independent.

Mady Castigan, independent journalist and advocate who has published updates on the bill and urged people to call their lawmakers about it, has been pushing for people to make calls to lawmakers to oppose the bill.

“I really doubt there's a ton of people calling and asking their senators to vote for this specific provision,” she said. “But I guarantee you, there's a ton more calling in to oppose it, and whenever something like that happens, you know, it definitely swings the political calculations.”

But as of right now, much of the future of the legislation is unclear because Senate Republicans have yet to release the tax and health care aspects of their bill.

“I would assume so, but I haven't seen the details of it,” Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota, who is retiring, told The Independent about whether Democrats would challenge the ban.

But other Democrats avoided the question.

“There’s a whole list of stuff that's being scrubbed there. Both in the privilege scrub now and in the later point of order challenges, and I can't say any more than that,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island told The Independent.

This would not be the first time that Democrats and supporters of transgender rights pushed back on anti-transgender legislation. Earlier this year, Senate Democrats blocked legislation that would have banned transgender athletes from women’s sports.