The segment's title is the first problem and the smaller one. H.R. 8800, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027, passed the House of Representatives on July 22 by 216 to 212, with three members not voting [1]. That is one chamber. The bill has not passed the Senate.
The larger problem is the characterisation of what is in it. The show described the bill as, among other things, granting transgender rights. The House clerk publishes every amendment vote, and the transgender-related amendments went the other direction.
Roll Call 267: an amendment barring Tricare, the military health system, from covering certain gender-transition procedures - agreed to, 219 to 208 [2][3]. Roll Call 268: an amendment barring transgender girls from girls' sports at Defense Department schools - agreed to, 221 to 203 [2][3]. Roll Call 266: an amendment to codify the transgender military service ban - failed, 212 to 217 [2][3].
Two restrictions passed. A third restriction failed. Nothing in that set grants a right to anyone, and the only vote that went in a transgender service member's favour was the defeat of a further ban.
On the Israel provision, Section 219 establishes a United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative, directing the Pentagon to designate an executive agent for bilateral defense research and industrial cooperation [3]. Rep. Mike Lawler, responding to characterisations of it as a merger of the two militaries, said: 'We are not merging our military with the IDF... Stop stoking Jew hatred and do better' [3].
Two things the segment gets right, and which are not in dispute: the SAVE America Act has been merged into the NDAA before Senate transmission, and the roughly $1.15 trillion topline is accurate [3].
