The Department of Veterans Affairs was initially set to allow transgender veterans access to sex-change surgeries, but that proposed rule change has now been dropped.
The reason it’s been scrapped is not because of any change in heart, but because the VA failed to include a plan on how it would fund the surgeries.
“VA has been and will continue to explore a regulatory change that would allow VA to perform gender alteration surgery and a change in the medical benefits package, when appropriated funding is available,” the VA said in a statement, Military.com reports. “Therefore, this regulation will be withdrawn from the Fall 2016 Unified Agenda.”
For now, the department covers hormone therapy, but not sex-change surgery, as the Office of Management and Budget rejected the rule for lack of a concrete funding plan.
OMB’s rejection follows from an executive order from President Barack Obama in 2011, namely that agencies must bring to bear costs when proposing rule changes. In this case, the VA didn’t.
With a little more than two months before GOP President-elect Donald Trump takes over the White House, it’s possible the rule may never see the light of day again, especially given the socially conservative views of Vice President-elect Mike Pence.
Nothing is on firm ground, as Trump hasn’t spelled out his position on the issue of sex-change surgery, though he has said he’ll get rid of the nationwide directive allowing transgender schoolkids to use whichever bathroom they want.
The American Military Partner Association, the largest group of LGBT military families, issued a statement saying it was disappointed at the rule being so unceremoniously dropped.
“All of our nation’s veterans, regardless of their gender identity, deserve access to the medical care they earned serving our nation,” said AMPA President Ashley Broadway-Mack in a statement. “This is a deeply disappointing setback in making sure an often medically necessary procedure for transgender veterans is part of that care.”
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