NEWNow you can listen to Pak Gazette articles!
The 2025 U.S. defense bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, which passed the Senate on Wednesday and is headed to President Donald Trump’s desk, includes provisions banning biological males from playing women’s sports at U.S. military academies.
“The NDAA also permanently prohibits men from playing on women’s sports teams at all military academies,” reads a section of a Dec. 9 administrative statement addressing the bill from Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala.
Trans athletes have been banned from competing in NCAA sports since February 6, when the NCAA updated its gender eligibility policy to comply with Trump’s executive order “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON PakGazette.Com
A federal appeals court has also recently allowed the Pentagon to temporarily enforce its ban on transgender military service members.
The latest bill is one of the last remaining items that Congress will take up in 2025.
Lawmakers came together to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a roughly $901 billion package packed with defense policy that unlocks funding for several of the Trump administration’s national defense priorities.
LEADING GOP SENATOR URGES OLYMPIC OFFICIALS TO QUICKLY ENACT ‘DECISIVE POLICY’ BANNING MEN FROM PARTICIPATING IN WOMEN’S SPORTS
The measure passed the upper house on a bipartisan vote of 77 to 20. It is a perennial legislative exercise that lawmakers undertake, and one that typically comes and goes without a hitch, given that Congress typically closes out the year with it.
Other provisions, such as a requirement that the Pentagon release previously unseen footage of ship attacks in the Caribbean in exchange for fully funding the War Department’s travel fund, raised eyebrows but did not deter the package’s success.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Pak Gazette APP
That provision comes as lawmakers demand more transparency in the Trump administration’s attacks on suspected drug vessels and, in particular, as they seek the release of footage of a Sept. 2 double attack on a ship.
“This defense authorization bill, while not as much defense content as many of us would like, is a step in the right direction,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. “And I think the defense appropriations bill, which we expect to vote on later this week, is another example of the investment we must make to ensure that, in a dangerous world, we are prepared to defend America and its interests.”
