John McCain is co-sponsoring a new bill to block Trump transgender military banWashington Examiner, Sep 15, 2017, Travis J. Tritten
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has signed on to a new bill to be introduced Friday by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, to block President Trump's order to ban transgender military service.
The stand-alone bill, which is also co-sponsored by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the top Armed Services Democrat, has the same language as an amendment proposed by Gillibrand and Collins this week for the National Defense Authorization Act that would prohibit the military from barring service based on gender. That amendment never received a floor vote due to a dispute between Republicans and Democrats over debate of the NDAA.
"Any member of the military who meets the medical and readiness standards should be allowed to serve — including those who are transgender," McCain said in a statement.
Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who is the ranking member of the Armed Services military personnel subcomittee, said she and Collins have not given up the effort to block Trump from instituting his new policy.
"Thousands of brave transgender Americans love our country enough to risk their lives for it, fight for it, and even die for it, and Congress should honor them and let them serve," she said. "Doing otherwise would only harm our readiness at a time when our military is deployed around the world in defense of our country."
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