WASHINGTON, D.C. – For the second time in a month 3rd District Congresswoman Sharice Davids voted against a major U.S. military funding bill, this one supporting military construction projects and the U.S. Veterans Administration.
HR 4366, the “Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act 2024, passed the House on a 219-211vote with mostly Democrats in opposition and now goes to the Senate for consideration.
Davids, Kansas’ sole Democrat congressional representative, opposed her Republican colleagues from the Sunflower State Jake LaTurner, Tracey Mann and Ron Estes, who all
supported the bill.
It was the second time since early July Davids voted against a military funding bill which contained provisions prohibiting those funds from being used for service personnel abortions or for sex change operations. Davids did not answer an email request for comment regarding her vote, but she also voted against The National Defense Authorization Act earlier in July, an $886.3 billion appropriation which set policy and funding for the Defense Department and passed on a similar party line vote, which also carried prohibitions against payment from the appropriation for abortions and sex change procedures. Davids termed that bill part of the “far-right, anti-abortion agenda” from House Republicans that sought to “hold support for our military hostage.”
The recent bill, HR 4366, included $317.4 billion for the DOD in Military Construction and Family Housing, Department of Veterans Affairs and related agencies. Of the total, $155.701 billion is provided as discretionary funding, and $161.740 billion is provided for mandatory programs. Of the discretionary total, $17.474 billion is for Department of Defense military construction projects, nearly $800 million above the President’s Budget Request.
The bill also fully funds the Department of Veterans Affairs for Fiscal Year 2024 by appropriating $137.755 billion in discretionary funding in addition to the $20.268 billion included in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 for the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund. It also includes a total of $471.7 million for the four related agencies
Specifically, the bill forbids the utilization of any of the funds for an abortion unless in a case of rape or incest or in which not aborting the child would cost the life of the mother, and prohibits spending on so-called “gender affirming” care entailing surgeries and chemical therapies designed to fabricate the reduction of one’s natural sex.