Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026
Floor Speech
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chairman, this is the second of five--only five, and I think there should be more--amendments regarding gender-affirming care, trannies, you name it.
Castration is not a mistake, by the way. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to say that castration is healthcare and there is nothing more dehumanizing than going after the trannies out there.
One recently shot two young schoolchildren in Minnesota. It is a mental illness, and it needs to stop. We can stop it in our military right now.
In last year's NDAA, we took the important step of banning TRICARE from covering medical interventions to treat gender dysphoria, which would result in the sterilization of children.
This is a strong statement by the Congress in opposition to the mutilation of kids. However, the language allows the Department of War to continue to perform an array of gender-affirming child abuse on military dependents and to continue to mutilate our servicemembers.
My amendment is simple. It would prohibit TRICARE, across the board, from covering or furnishing the chemical or surgical mutilation of our warfighters and their dependents under the guise of healthcare.
Our government should not be in the business of mutilating our fellow citizens, particularly our warfighters, with our tax dollars and with your tax dollars, Mr. Chair.
This does not serve to advance our national security. It serves only to advance a dangerous and radical ideology that the American people have soundly rejected. Not only have the American people rejected the chemical and surgical mutilation of their fellow citizens, but much of the science doesn't support it, as well.
The science of playing to the delusions of these individuals is not compassionate. It is cruel. Numerous studies have shown that not only do these cross-sex hormones dramatically increase the risk of infertility and sexual dysfunction, but they actually increase depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among those for whom these medical procedures are performed.
The purpose of our military is to fight and to win wars. It is to create warfighters, killers, not to participate in the latest progressive fad.
Under the Biden administration, we diverted money away from readiness and lethality to promote extreme gender ideology and to fund sex changes in our military.
Under the Trump administration, we have finally recognized gender dysphoria for what it is, a mental illness which precludes military service.
Our armed services are not a laboratory to study the effects of irreversible surgeries or hormones. Our service does not exist to provide experimental treatments to those whose conditions should be disqualifying. These people are mentally ill and should not be serving in the United States military.
This amendment says clearly the purpose of our military is to defend the United States, not validate identity politics. It makes sure TRICARE serves the mission of protecting health, not undermining it.
Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chair, may I inquire as to the time remaining.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chair, if not wanting to castrate kids is a rightwing culture war, then sign me up because this is not the kind of thing that should be happening to children or military dependents anywhere in our country.
Castrating kids is not healthcare either. We are talking about something very permanent. We don't allow our kids to be tattooed until they are adults. We don't allow them to drink or smoke or vote until they are adults. The gentleman is saying that it is okay to castrate a kid because of this weirdo, freak ideology.
Yes, these are weirdos. These are freaks. These are people who are mentally deranged and mentally ill. This should not be funded by American taxpayers.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chair, women have fought for decades to have equal opportunity in education and athletics. As the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, no one understands that fight better than I do.
Unfortunately, these hard-earned rights women have fought for are now literally under assault. Misogyny disguised as acceptance has forced mediocre male athletes into women's locker rooms, forcing women to undress in front of them, robbing women of opportunities, and have left some women with lifelong scars.
My amendment would prohibit the superintendents of the service academies from allowing a cadet or midshipman who is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designed for females.
It is an indisputable fact there are significant physical, biological, I dare say science or scientific, differences between men and women. Biological men generally have greater muscle mass, bone density, cardiovascular capacity, and physical strength than women do. This is very obvious.
Allowing men to compete in women's sports is patently unfair and robs women and girls of accomplishments and opportunities.
Over 900 medals in women's sports have been won by biological men, stolen from women who worked hard to earn them.
Women have fought hard to earn records that have been shattered by mediocre men, men pretending to be women, mentally ill men pretending to be women.
This is a travesty and discourages women from competing at all. This was the case last year when multiple college women's volleyball teams forfeited rather than face a team with a biological male athlete, rather than face a traumatic brain injury when the next man hit them in the face with a volleyball.
There is nothing honorable about robbing women of opportunities, invading their privacy, and jeopardizing their safety in athletic competitions. Allowing biological men to participate in women's sports is incompatible with the values of our servicemembers, our service academies, and basic notions of fairness and good, old-fashioned common sense.
I urge all Members to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chairman, may I inquire as to the time remaining.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chair, imagine being a woman on the floor of the House of Representatives, screaming--I dare say screeching--into the microphone to put your daughter in danger or to have your daughter's scholarships, your daughter's skills, and your daughter's opportunities stolen from her because some guy--some mentally ill, deranged, weird freak of a man--thinks he is a woman because he can put on a skirt and wave his willy-nilly around in a locker room, that he somehow is equal to a woman and that he is going to take away her rights.
We fought for so long for rights as women. We didn't get the right to vote until, what, 1919 or 1920? In fact, in the State of South Carolina, we didn't elect our first Republican woman to the U.S. House of Representatives, to Congress, until 2020. I was sworn into office in January of 2021.
We have fought hard. There are so many opportunities for women. Yet we have never had a female President of the United States. I am not going to let some guy in a skirt come around to take opportunities away from our daughters, from future leaders, or a future President one day because somebody is mentally ill and thinks they can steal those opportunities away from your daughter.
It is not going to happen, not on my watch. We can start with the service academies and protecting these women who are going to fight valiantly, to serve, and to protect our freedoms in our country, here and abroad, to make sure that opportunities are not stolen from them by the mentally ill.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chairman, may I inquire as to the time remaining.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chairman, I will address the topic of sexual violence, particularly with my female colleagues across the aisle.
I have authored dozens of bills related to sexual violence, and very few of my Democratic colleagues will sign up and cosponsor them in a bipartisan way. Why is that? Is it because I don't want men in women's spaces? Probably. Is it because I say the word ``tranny''? Yes.
Democrats don't want to protect women except for when it makes good on their narrative. In fact, when I gave a harrowing speech for 1 hour on the floor of this House earlier this year on February 10, as I talked about my personal experiences with sexual violence, not a single female Democratic colleague spoke up in defense of women who are victims and survivors of sexual violence.
Mr. Chairman, I find it offensive, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is about one thing and one thing only: restoring biological truth, restoring biological reality, and restoring science.
For too long, my colleagues across the aisle have pushed the fiction which says that your gender is whatever you say it is and that you can change your mind at any time. You can be thinking. Thinking is like a gender option to some of these morons.
Under 4 long years of the Biden administration, they have enshrined this fiction in every facet of our government and demanded that we all play along with the lie that men can be women, women can be men, and people can be both, neither, either, other, or whatever. They could be a eunuch. It is so ridiculous.
Perhaps they even share the delusion that people can sexually identify as an attack helicopter because, apparently, that is also an option for some of these maniacs.
My amendment recognizes a simple fact: There are two genders. They are designated at birth, and they cannot be changed.
This is basic biology, Biology 101. It is not about feelings. It is not about ideology. It is not about politics. It is not about trying to make half of 1 percent of the population happy for the rest of us.
Under this amendment, the Secretary of War would be prohibited from collecting information for a form or survey related to gender identity. ``Male'' and ``female'' are the only two options that should be listed for questions about sex or gender, and the Secretary will be required to reject forms which list a sex or gender other than ``male'' or ``female.'' We are going to bring back common sense to the Department of War.
Mr. Chairman, this ideology is not harmful. It is corrosive. It has undermined women and seeks to replace objective truths with subjective fiction. It has told us that we must reject the foundational truths that our society has held for thousands of years. This ideology has forced institutions to adopt terms like ``birthing persons,'' ``pronouns,'' which got us into this whole mess--``they,'' ``them,'' ``it''--as if language itself must be bent to their radicalized ideology.
They have taken what is obvious to every civilization in human history, that men are men and women are women, and turned it into a political controversy. I say, today: Enough is enough.
This amendment would restore common sense and the truth at the Department of War. I can't believe this is even a debate we need to have on the floor of the House.
Mr. Chair, you are going to hear opposition to science today from people who tell you to follow science. Women are biologically distinct from men, and we love it. Every single one of my colleagues knows this truth, even if they are too afraid to say it.
My colleagues across the aisle have stood silent for too long and allowed this ideology to erase women and hand over our hard-won victories to men. This amendment ensures the Department of War recognizes these biological realities.
This is more than about forms and paperwork. It is about whether we will defend women or whether we will erase them. It is about whether the strongest military on Earth will be grounded in reality or captured by ideology.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand with the truth, stand with women, and stand with our military, and vote in favor of this amendment.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chair, may I inquire as to the time remaining.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chair, I will say that a form that you say whether you are male or female, how you were born, what God gave you, is not an obstacle. That just goes to show, the mere comment that filling out a form, am I male or female, that it is such a huge, ornate, objective obstacle, that it is adversarial, just goes to show you how mentally ill this ideology is, that filling out a form that is biologically pure, biologically true, would trigger you.
It goes to ask: Would it trigger them so much that they would go shoot up a military base? Maybe. We had a tranny shoot up a school, a Catholic school, a couple of weeks ago in Minnesota, killing two beautiful, young children.
They are mentally ill. These people should not be serving in our military. When they accuse us of erasing trannies in the military, yes, if you are mentally ill, you don't have the right to serve. We need warfighters. We need men and women who are going to be strong on the front of our battle lines fighting terrorism.
Iran is on the march. China is nipping at our heels, as is Russia. We need men and women who, rather than worry about if I am a eunuch or this or that, an attack helicopter, or whatever gender dysphoria they have that day is--who are we going to make safe today? What freedom are we fighting for?
How we are going to make Americans safe here and abroad, that is the mission. Our national security is the mission for the United States military, and it will stay there with Donald Trump as President.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chair, my amendment is straightforward. It would ensure the use of sex-specific spaces such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms on military installations are based on biological sex, not ideology. Women in uniform deserve dignity, privacy, and absolute safety.
Protecting women's spaces shouldn't be partisan. It should be common sense. However, under the Biden administration, the Federal Government decided to abandon common sense. It allowed men to enter women's spaces and violate their privacy and dignity.
Under President Trump, the government has restored basic biological truth: men are men, and women are women. I applaud the President for his commitment to protecting women, but a future administration could bring us right back to this insanity.
The Biden administration sacrificed the dignity and safety of women to appease radical gender, lunatic ideology. Our women in uniform shouldn't be forced to suffer indignities to appease the insane policies of the other side of the aisle, all the Democrats who support this nonsense.
Allowing delusional men to use women's restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms is an affront to women, and it is reckless.
In Virginia, a registered sex offender with more than a dozen convictions was allowed to use the women's changing room by claiming he was a woman. For 6 months, he exposed himself to women and kids. This is who the left is defending today, pedophiles and men that want to go in women's spaces and rape them, assault them, and expose themselves to little girls and our daughters.
In California, a 17-year-old girl was terrorized by the presence of a man in her locker room while she showered.
In Georgia, a 51-year-old man pretending to be a woman undressed in the women's restroom and exposed himself to shoppers.
In Virginia, a girl was sexually assaulted by a biological male in a woman's bathroom.
In Oklahoma, a young woman was beaten for daring to say she was uncomfortable sharing a bathroom with a man.
This is not theoretical. These aren't just random incidents. This is an epidemic. They are the natural, predictable consequence of policies that pretend biology doesn't matter. These are the policies of the left, policies of Democrats who say: Follow the science, except for women. We don't care about you. We hate you. We want to take everything away from you. We won't follow science on this one.
We have opened the door for predators to abuse women and girls. Our daughters are growing up with something we never had to distinguish when our generation was growing up. We are putting our daughters in imminent danger, in harm's way, and this has to stop.
Women shouldn't be forced to share their private spaces with men, and this amendment says we are going back to reality. Privacy and safety matters. Dignity matters. Women matter.
Mr. Chair, I encourage my colleagues to protect all women. I urge all Members to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chair, it is ironic that my colleague says that women are harassed going into the bathroom. Well, that might be because nobody wants a transgender, tranny, person in the bathroom with them. No one wants biological men in women's spaces. And because this wacko ideology, not based in science, is now pervasive, we are teaching it in schools and we are forcing kids to use pronouns. We want to protect women because the left has gone so far. It is not just the left. This is mainstream Democrat policy, going after our girls.
You heard my colleague say there is no evidence, literally after I read evidence of incidents of trannies in private spaces assaulting women and underage girls, our daughters, kids.
They say no evidence exists. That is because Democrats will not show you or tell you or share with you the facts, but the average American, we see it every day now. It is everywhere and people are sick and tired of it. If they want this harassment to stop, then the trannies need to stop harassing the rest of America. This is not what the American people want. It is not what they voted for.
They say that our servicemembers, our servicewomen in uniform, go through enough. They are right. That is why we don't want this happening. That is why we want to protect them. In their most intimate moments in the dressing room, no man should be watching them.
They talk about lawsuits. We don't want more lawsuits. I find it ironic because it is Democrats who sue States and sue Republican parties over congressional lines and apportionment and all those things that tie our U.S. elections up in lawsuits. It is their party, not ours. We are just fighting back. We are going to protect every woman and girl, every single daughter in the United States, but particularly for our servicemembers, our women in uniform. The Republican Party is the party of common sense. We are the party of normal. We are the party of women.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. MACE. Are you--
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