From left: Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Becca Balint and Sen. Peter Welch. Photos by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerAll three members of Vermont’s congressional delegation voted against a major defense bill for 2025 — which has now cleared both the U.S. House and Senate — at least in part over a controversial measure restricting the use of federal funds to cover certain medical care for the transgender children of U.S. military personnel. The Senate gave the legislation final approval Wednesday, 85-14. Both Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., joined a handful of prominent Democrats in rejecting the bill, which overall had substantial bipartisan support.The bill got a green light in the House last week, 281-140, where Vermont Rep. Becca Balint was in step with more than half of her fellow Democrats in voting against it. President Joe Biden is now expected to sign the bill into law. While the annual defense authorization legislation, which sets Pentagon policy, has for decades passed with little debate, the bill became embroiled in controversy at the 11th hour this month after GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana pushed for the provision restricting youth access to gender-affirming health care.Top Democrats including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York had argued that the bill, considered a “must-pass” piece of legislation each year, contained important provisions for bolstering national defense regardless. Vermont’s senators, meanwhile, also took issue with a fundamental aspect of the legislation — its $895 billion price tag. “Congress has added and added to what the Pentagon has already (asked) for. It has more to do with the defense industry than it does with keeping Americans safe,” Welch said of the bill, in a statement released after Wednesday’s vote. “It’s time we work to ensure Vermonters’ tax dollars go to programs that are cutting edge, efficient, and instrumental to America’s national security needs.”Welch both praised and criticized parts of the bill in his statement, saying it was important to fund the country’s military though he ultimately thought the bill “missed the mark,” pointing also to the measure barring gender-affirming care for military families.The sweeping defense bill also includes pay raises for U.S. service members and bolsters the military’s child care system, along with billions of dollars’ worth of construction projects and plans for new military equipment and weaponry.Sanders had already made his distaste for the legislation known ahead of Wednesday’s vote, arguing in a statement and on the Senate floor last week that the bill directed vital federal resources away from the country’s most vulnerable populations. “We do not need a defense system that is designed to make huge profits for a handful of giant defense contractors,” Sanders said. “We do not need to spend almost a trillion dollars on the military, while half a million Americans are homeless, children go hungry, and elderly people are unable to afford to heat their homes in the winter.” Balint had similar comments in a statement after the House approved the legislation, saying it “amounted to a blank check to the military industrial complex.” She also took aim at the measure Johnson advanced, which also faced criticism from one top Republican who said it was unnecessary since GOP President-elect Donald Trump could put a similar policy in place next year without Congressional action. “Republicans have decided to politicize this important funding responsibility with yet another attack on military families with trans children,” Balint said. “While Democrats support age appropriate, medically recommended health care for everyone, Republicans have singled out these military families and stripped them of life saving care.” While the legislation sets out the government’s plans for the Pentagon for the upcoming year, it does not appropriate the funding for them. That will have to come in a separate appropriations bill, which Congress is yet to approve.Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont’s congressional delegation votes against major federal defense bill.