Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the Do Not Harm in Medicaid Act, a bill by Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) to block all Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care for minors. Crenshaw’s bill, which he says is tailored to bypass the Senate filibuster with a simple majority vote, passed the House 215-201 on Thursday, with four Democrats voting with the Republican majority in favor. The bill is just the latest of several Republican-led anti-trans initiatives to occur this week.

Usually, the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to end a filibuster has been a significant roadblock to legislation passing Congress. Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate, so, usually, they’d need at least seven Democratic votes over the next two years to pass legislation.

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However, Crenshaw says that his bill can get through the Senate using the reconciliation process, which is a loophole reserved for certain fiscal bills. Only a simple majority – or 51 votes, or 50 votes plus the vice president as a tie-breaker – is needed to pass legislation under reconciliation.

“Budget reconciliation provides a unique opportunity to pass meaningful reforms with direct fiscal impacts,” he said. “This bill fits squarely within that framework, ensuring it will survive procedural scrutiny while delivering a critical win for children and families.”

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“Using Medicaid funds for unproven and irreversible procedures on minors is not only medically irresponsible but also a betrayal of public trust,” Crenshaw said in a statement after filing the bill. “This bill ensures that Medicaid’s limited resources are used only for evidence-based, medically necessary care.”

Crenshaw is incorrect. Gender-affirming care has been administered to minors for decades, with plenty of evidence supporting it. The care has been shown to be safe and effective, and American professional medical associations back the care as the best practice for treating gender dysphoria.

On Wednesday, the House passed a bill introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), which would criminalize providers of gender-affirming care with 10 years in prison. Three Democrats joined Republicans to pass the bill, 216-211. However, the bill is unlikely to pass the Senate because it cannot bypass the 60-vote filibuster threshold to become law.

Yesterday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it would take more measures to end transgender care for minors. At a news conference led by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the administration said it would bar all federal funding for any hospital in the United States that provided the care.

The HHS also announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will send warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers of chest binders for minors for the purposes of treating gender dysphoria, alleging that the manufacturers are participating in illegal marketing, NBC News reported.

Numerous medical experts have spoken against the administration’s anti-trans policies, saying they insert politicians into families’ medical decisions and will harm young trans patients by essentially forcing them to detransition.

An estimated 724,000 youth ages 13 to 17 — about 3.3% of all American youth in that age group — identify as trans, according to a study of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Less than 0.1% of adolescents ages 8 to 17 — about 5,100 individuals — with private insurance in the U.S. are trans or gender diverse and receive puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormones, according to a study published this year in JAMA Pediatrics.

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