The federal government will no longer subsidize transgender procedures for either adults or children.
On Thursday, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued a declaration prohibiting gender transition procedures as valid treatments for addressing gender dysphoria.
“Sex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective as a treatment modality for gender dysphoria, gender incongruence, or other related disorders in minors, and therefore, fail to meet professional recognized standards of health care. For the purposes of this declaration, ‘sex-rejecting procedures’ means pharmaceutical or surgical interventions, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries such as mastectomies, vaginoplasties, and other procedures, that attempt to align an individual’s physical appearance or body with an asserted identity that differs from the individual’s sex.”
The declaration cited the HHS evidence review on pediatric gender dysphoria care published in May as justification for the cessation of funds. As part of this evidence review, HHS invited peer reviews from other major medical associations. Among those invited, the American Academy of Pediatrics and Endocrine Society declined to participate. However, the American Psychiatric Association and eight other peer reviewers submitted their own reviews, which HHS published along with their own responses last month.
Further justification for the declaration came from evidence reviews and consensus by other European nations: the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Italy, Brazil, and Australia.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will also be proposing new rules barring hospitals which participate in Medicare and Medicaid from performing gender transition procedures, and prohibiting Medicaid from paying for those procedures.
The FDA issued warnings to around a dozen manufacturers of breast binders to cease marketing to children for gender dysphoria. Noncompliance would result in enforcement actions, including product seizures.
HHS will also be reversing the Biden administration’s efforts to make gender dysphoria a protected class within the federal definition of “disability.”
In a press conference on the declaration, Kennedy said medical professionals supportive of transgenderism had “betrayed” their oath and “moral obligation” to do no harm.
“This is not medicine, it is malpractice. We’re done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the well-being of children,” said Kennedy. “Sex-rejecting procedures rob children of their futures.”
One report cited by HHS estimated that 2023 revenue for gender-transitioning drugs and surgeries exceeded $4.4 billion, a figure which is on track to exceed $7 billion by 2030.
CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said children were sold a “dishonest narrative” about gender transitions as healthcare.
“You know what you get when you mix politics and medicine? Politics. There is no medicine left,” said Oz.
53 percent of children are in Medicaid or CHIP programs.
Oz offered a non-comprehensive list of recurring health problems within gender transition patients: puberty blockers associated with reduced bone density, altered brain development, lifelong disrupted sexual dysfunction; cross-sex hormones associated with infertility, loss of sexual function, cardiovascular issues, and long-term endocrine problems; and gender transition surgeries associated with disfiguration, pain, and mental health troubles.
Oz pointed out the high costs of the gender transition surgeries, offering examples of a vaginoplasty ($60,000) and phalloplasty ($150,000).
HHS estimates these bans will result in $250 million in savings for the taxpayer.
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On Wednesday, July 16th, I attended the quarterly public meeting held by the federal monitor overseeing the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, alongside Sheriff Jerry Sheridan. These meetings are intended to gather community input regarding the continued federal oversight. Historically, these sessions have been dominated by voices calling for the oversight to continue — but not anymore.
The people of Maricopa County are fed up. We’re tired of the federal government wasting taxpayer dollars, constantly shifting the goalposts, and interfering with our local law enforcement. Last week, hundreds of concerned citizens showed up to support Sheriff Sheridan and his dedicated team. And we’re not done. We will continue to make our voices heard every quarter until Judge Snow hears us loud and clear: enough is enough.
Out of thirteen mandated benchmarks from Judge Snow, the Sheriff’s Office has met twelve. The only remaining issue? Hispanic individuals, on average, experience encounters that are 17 seconds longer than individuals of other races. Seventeen seconds. That is the justification being used to prolong this multimillion-dollar oversight?
As someone who has worked in customer service, I can tell you that when a language barrier is involved, conversations naturally take longer. It’s not discrimination — it’s respect. It’s a commitment to ensuring clarity, understanding, and fairness. I would often take several minutes longer, not just seconds, to ensure someone understood important documents or procedures. That’s called good service — not racism.
Yet the ACLU and federal monitors insist this slight timing difference is grounds for continued federal control. They are actively seeking racism in places where it does not exist, undermining the professionalism and integrity of our Sheriff’s Office.
It’s time to end this charade. The citizens of Maricopa County demand the immediate termination of this federal monitoring. Let our sheriff do his job without unnecessary interference and outrageous costs.
Stop the federal monitoring of our Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
Lisa Everett serves as the Legislative District 29 Chair. You can follow her on X here.
All of Washington is acting like their hair is on fire with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) requirement that federal employees list what they accomplished. Many are acting like they don’t know the answer and they want to phone a friend.
The Civil Service system is long overdue for a thorough review.
Let’s start with this simple fact: the most leftwing institution in America is the roughly 3 million members of the federal workforce. There is probably no group that comes even close. We know that more than nine of ten Washington, D.C., residents voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris. We know that the overwhelming number of federal employees are registered Democrats.
Workers have the right to vote for whomever they wish. But in an era when the left preaches nothing but diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) — there is no organized group of workers that has less diversity, are less inclusive and are less equitable than federal workers when it comes to ideology.
We know from Bureau of Labor Statistics data that the quit rate in the federal government is only one-third as high as the quit rate for those who work in the private sector. In the private sector, it’s up or out. In Washington it’s nearly impossible to fire a worker.
The unions and the workers know how to play the employment game like a master chess player. Try to fire an incompetent or belligerent or chronically tardy federal worker and get ready for a blizzard of discrimination or wrongful termination lawsuits. It’s a well-honed racket.
For federal managers trying to do right by the taxpayers, it’s less stressful and less costly to keep the worst workers on the payroll.
It’s unfair and demoralizing to those dedicated federal workers – and there are hundreds of thousands of them – who truly want to serve the country and help people. But even they get sucked into a punch-the-time-clock reward system that merely encourages mediocrity.
Until now. Trump and Elon want a new highly professional civil service workforce. They want to fire the bad actors.
Why shouldn’t a federal worker face the same scrutiny and job performance standards that are routine in the private sector? That’s especially true when the employer is losing money – in this case to the tune of $2 trillion a year.
In his first term Trump tried to install a pay for performance standard in the civil service system. This would have greatly benefited the very best employees. But Trump – much like Reagan back in the 1980s got his head handed to him for “politicizing” the hallowed civil service system. It was man against machine and the machine won.
Trump wants to downsize a bloated federal workforce. This will lead to a leaner, more productive and customer responsive work environment. And maybe even one that is more diverse in its politics. It’s about time.
Stephen Moore is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and a co-founder of Unleash Prosperity.
The latest official employment report finds once again that the federal government and state-and-local government hiring spree is still in full gear. Over the past year health care and government hiring has outpaced every private sector industry.
So, even though there are a lot more government workers, good luck finding them or getting them on the phone.
This is because so few of them are actually physically on the job.
What is happening in the federal government (“Club Fed”) these days borders on the absurd — or should I say the obscene. A recent survey by Federal News Network of federal workers finds only 6% are working full time in the office. Thirty percent are full time remote. Office buildings in Washington have become city-block long zombies. Especially on Fridays.
While exact comparisons between public and private employees are tricky and inexact, best estimates are that in 2023 roughly 30% of private workers were working from home or remotely either some or all of the time. In the private sector, the percentage of employees working from home has actually declined from about 50% during Covid (2020).
This means that federal employees are three times more likely to be working remotely either some or all of the time.
I am all for employees working remotely a few days a week and this is likely to become more common in the information and digital age. I do that myself.
But one has to wonder how many of these workers are really necessary. And what are the chances that these remote government workers who can almost never get fired for bad performance are putting in an honest day’s work. My suspicion is very few.
The irony is that three years ago the federal government issued an order for federal employees to return to work post-Covid. Many thousands have blatantly ignored the order.
Remember, government workers have some of the cushiest and least stressful jobs on the planet. And they get paid roughly 30 to 40% more than comparably skilled private workers — when taking account exorbitant benefits.
Here is my solution. Uncle Sam is losing almost $2 trillion a year. Stop hiring new people. Every federal agency including the biggest bureaucracy in the world — the Pentagon — should impose a hiring freeze — except for extraordinary circumstances — until the budget is balanced. Then impose a 30% across the board reduction in force (RIF).
Finally, if the government needs more revenues, start by selling federal buildings that are less than one-half occupied. Many buildings are less than 20 percent occupied.
Former President Donald Trump’s most popular rallying cry in 2016 was to “drain the swamp.” But today the swamp is deeper than ever and the deep state swamp creatures are more numerous than ever after four years of the Biden-Kamala administration. If Trump wins, he and Republicans should get draining.
Stephen Moore is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and a co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
The Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport has become somewhat of a rite of passage for illegal immigrants as the federal government charters them across the country. It marks another moment in their lengthy journey of free travel and accommodations, all on the taxpayer’s dime.
Illegal immigrants are also bused to the airport from the border, and have flooded Phoenix Sky Harbor by the hundreds on a daily basis.
I love Arizona too much to see it turned into a rest stop for illegal immigrants to be shipped deeper into our country.
I would have put a stop to this madness on DAY ONE.
This practice has continued now for several years under the Biden administration. Last summer, Rebel News caught the practice on video: a confused illegal immigrant asks a TSA agent for assistance as he navigates the airport.
Illegal migrants flying from Phoenix Sky Harbor International to continue their journey in the United States.
Over two years in, and meaningful border policy has yet to emerge from Arizona’s leaders in D.C.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who chairs the Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management, has been largely unsuccessful in mitigating the border crisis. Sinema chalked it up as a win last Oct. when she claimed to have halved the number of illegal immigrants being bused to the airports by arranging additional shelter or alternative transportation for them.
In May, Sinema helped introduce legislation to retain the functional aspects of Title 42 after the policy ended; the legislation hasn’t moved.
Since the end of Title 42 and with the border crisis unrelenting, Sinema has embarked on multiple trips to the border. In her most recent trip, Sinema claimed she was shocked by the state of the border: namely, that border agents are so overwhelmed with processing asylum claims that they’re unable to patrol the border.
“Our border patrol agents [are] spending the majority of their time processing asylum seekers and migrants, and spending very little time actually out in the field looking for individuals who are seeking to enter the country unlawfully, or interdicting the trafficking of drugs,” said Sinema.
Sinema noted that this was a problem because the majority of drugs are being smuggled in outside of legal ports of entry.
Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03), who seeks to take over Sinema’s seat in 2024, supported the end of Title 42 and opposed border security proposals as “cruel” for being reminiscent of policy set by former President Donald Trump.
Rather than requiring illegal immigrants to seek asylum at legal points of entry along the border, Gallego proposed more asylum processing resources to mitigate the crisis.
“They need tangible resources like buses, beds, personnel, and funds to both process asylum claims in an orderly way and keep their communities safe,” said Gallego.
Gallego has long opposed the construction of physical border barriers as a means of security.
While the federal government accepts illegal immigrants into the country and charters them by plane, American citizens face further bureaucratic hurdles to fly with the imposition of REAL ID. All citizens must obtain an updated ID bearing REAL ID markings by May 7, 2025 in order to fly. The government also doesn’t accept interim driver’s licenses (temporary paper licenses).
The original REAL ID deadline was in 2021, but has since been twice extended to this year, then to 2025.
2025 comes two years sooner than the average court date for illegal immigrants. The national average for an immigration hearing sits at over 1,500 days: over four years. Arizona’s average sits at just over 1,000 days: over two years and eight months.
The delays have caused an unprecedented number of immigration lawsuits filed in federal court.
According to Syracuse University data, the immigration court backlog has reached nearly 2.5 million, with nearly 13,400 pending criminal/national security/terror cases. Arizona has over 17,000 pending cases, with about 360 pending criminal/national security/terror cases. The national backlog nearly doubled after President Joe Biden took office, from 2021 to 2022.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
