Under the provision, a trained third party would have to be present for exams conducted by obstetrician-gynecologists at military treatment facilities.
After controversial amendment votes, a House committee advanced a bill early Friday morning that would authorize the largest defense budget in history.
Lawmakers questioned the timing and the reasons, lambasting the order that Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said sent a “terrible message to Russia and our allies.”
The U.S. defense budget request for Fiscal Year 2027 has raised the prospect of an increase in the monthly stipend paid out to troops in dangerous regions.
