House Republicans have announced their intent to cut federal funding for training new pediatricians to hospitals that perform gender-affirming care on minors. The proposed bill, sponsored by Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), would attach the reauthorization of training funds under the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education to a ban on gender-affirming care for children. Opponents to the bill argue that it has the potential to cut funding for more than half of the nation’s training programs.

The Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education program provides funding to support training new pediatricians. In Fiscal Year 2022, the program gave approximately $356 million to 59 US hospitals. The program requires reauthorization every five years and is set to expire on September 30, 2023. Children’s hospital groups have requested a clean reauthorization which would extend the program without any changes. Crenshaw’s bill, H.R. 3887, is cosponsored by Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), Re. Mariannette Miller-Meek (R-Iowa), and Re. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.). The bill, if enacted, would ban any hospital from receiving training program funds if the hospital offers a patient younger than 18 any range of gender-affirming services, including hormone treatments, puberty blockers, or surgeries with the purpose of changing the body of the minor to correspond to a sex that differs from their biological sex. The bill is pending before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

H.R. 3887 is available here.