Transgender servicemembers are suing the Trump administration for rescinding pensions

Transgender servicemembers are suing the Trump administration for rescinding pensions

President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January that banned transgender people from serving in the military.

Sean Davis

November 12, 2025 4:05 pm

< a min read

• Transgender Air Force and Space Force servicemembers are suing the Trump administration for rescinding pensions that had been previously granted by the Air Force secretary. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January that banned transgender people from serving in the military. In June, the Air Force approved retirement orders for the Airmen named in the lawsuit, but two months later the service reversed the course, informing airmen, each with at least 15 years of service, that they would be separated without retirement benefits under the ban. The lawsuit argues that revoking those retirement orders violates Air Force policies and procedures.
  Transgender servicemembers affected by this will lose an estimated $1 to 2 million over the course of their lifetimes, the lawsuit says. It will also strip them of lifetime access to TRICARE health coverage.
• The bill to re-open the federal government would also extend a critical cybersecurity law.
  The continuing resolution passed by the Senate would extend the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 until the end of January. The law’s authorities expired on Oct. 1. Experts say CISA 2015 provides crucial liability and privacy protections that encourage companies to share data about cyber threats. Government officials say companies have continued to share information following the law’s expiration. But they say a longer-term lapse could derail public-private collaboration on cyber threats.
• A bipartisan bill would require the Labor Department to keep track of AI-related layoffs happening across the federal workforce. The bill would also require the department to collect data on AI’s impact on jobs at major companies. Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) are leading the bill. They say the legislation would give the federal government a clearer picture of which jobs are impacted the most by AI and which new jobs are being created.
• A Senate-passed spending deal to end the government shutdown also sets staffing targets for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The spending bill gives the VA 90 days to provide the House and Senate appropriations committees with a staffing model that will ensure it can provide timely health care and benefits. The VA previously planned to eliminate more than 80-thousand positions, but scrapped plans for a department-wide reduction in force, and instead planned to eliminate 30,000 positions through attrition by the end of fiscal 2025. The spending bill specifically bars the VA from reducing staffing levels, hours of operation or services at the Veterans Crisis Line or any of its other suicide prevention programs.

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• Violent threats against public servants have been escalating over the last decade. A new report from the Public Service Alliance and The Impact Project found that threats of doxxing, harassment and physical attacks have all been on the rise since 2013. The two non-profit groups recently released a “security map,” showing not only an increase in volume, but also an expansion of who is targeted.
• Federal employees have a new opportunity to share more about their experiences in the workplace this year. The Partnership for Public Service has launched a new governmentwide survey for federal employees, in an effort to fill a major gap in workforce data. The initiative comes after the Trump administration canceled the 2025 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey earlier this year. Current civilian federal employees can take the Partnership’s Public Service Viewpoint Survey between now and Dec. 19. The topline results will be released in early 2026.
• After a banner recruiting year, the Coast Guard is identifying locations for a new training center. The service released a request for information on Monday to identify facilities that could lodge 1,200 new recruits. The Coast Guard is planning to add 15,000 personnel to its ranks in the coming years. It recruited more than 5,200 new service members last year — well above its annual target of 4,300 recruits. The deadline to respond to the Coast Guard’s training center RFI is Dec. 8.
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is putting pressure on a leading industry group to stop opposing bipartisan right-to-repair efforts that would allow service members to fix their own equipment.
  
  In a letter to the National Defense Industrial Association, Warren called the organization’s opposition to reform proposals in the House and Senate versions of the annual defense policy bill a “dangerous and misguided attempt to protect an unacceptable status quo of giant contractor profiteering.” NDIA argues that the provision would allow the Defense Department to provide parts, tools and information to any authorized third-party contractor, including a company’s direct competitors. The industry group said these efforts will “hamper innovation” and “deter companies from contracting with the DoD.” Warren said that “the opposite is true” and that the argument “appears to be a late-in-the game effort to confuse and scare members of Congress and muddy the terms of the debate.”

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