Rep. Susan Wild (Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, was absent from the panel’s meeting last week after being traced as the source of leaks to the press regarding the investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), sources told The Hill. It remains unclear if Wild voluntarily skipped the Thursday gathering or…

The House on Wednesday afternoon passed the $884 billion defense policy bill for 2025. The measure passed in a bipartisan 281-140 vote despite the late inclusion of a controversial measure by House Speaker Mike Johnson that would ban the Department of Defense from providing gender dysphoria treatments such as hormones and puberty blockers “that could result in sterilization” for transgender children of servicemembers.

The bill passed the House by a vote of 281-140 and will next move to the Senate, where lawmakers had sought a bigger boost in defense spending than the current measure allows.

The House approved a key defense bill Wednesday that extends a big pay raise to junior troops, while overcoming Democratic objections to a prohibition on the use of military health insurance for “gender dysphoria” treatments for transgender youth.