{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.lee.senate.gov/2026/7/lee-introduces-ban-on-federal-funding-for-child-mutilation-studies", "Lee Introduces Ban on Federal Funding for Child Mutilation Studies", "2026-07-31", "2026", "2026-07", "Republican", "Senate", "UT", "Mike Lee", "L000577", "www.lee.senate.gov", "mikelee", "https://www.lee.senate.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced legislation to prohibit the use of federal funds for any research or publication promoting gender transitions for minors. The Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act will shield American children from permanent medical and psychological damage, in line with President Trump\u2019s agenda to keep tax dollars from child mutilation. The bill is cosponsored by Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), James Lankford (R-OK), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), and is endorsed by Students for Life Action and the American Principles Project.\n\n\u201cWhy is the federal bureaucracy in the child mutilation business?\u201d said Senator Mike Lee. \u201cAmericans don\u2019t want to pay millions for these disturbing studies where hundreds of kids are experimented on with puberty-blocking drugs. President Trump rightly halted this attack on America\u2019s kids. Our bill will codify his agenda to keep federal dollars out of gender transition research involving minors.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act takes the long-overdue step of prohibiting federal dollars from supporting procedures that involve dangerous, life-altering, and irreversible gender transition research on minors,\u201d said Senator Ted Cruz. \u201cI am proud to join Senator Lee in this effort, and I urge my colleagues to pass this commonsense legislation.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s critical that taxpayer dollars are never used to experiment on our children,\u201d said Senator Steve Daines. \u201cGender-transition procedures are irreversible, potentially life-threatening, and a form of child abuse. I\u2019m proud to co-sponsor this bill with Senator Lee to keep our children safe from harm.\u201d\n\n\"God creates every child male or female in His perfect image,\u201d said Senator James Lankford. \u201cFor too long, taxpayers have been forced to fund sex-rejecting studies on kids. The result has been irreversible physical harm, mental health crises, and families torn apart. President Trump has led the effort to shut down these grants across the federal government, and Congress needs to make it permanent. This bill ensures that not one more taxpayer dollar funds research designed to harm children.\"\n\n\u201cTaxpayers should not be spending a penny on research done by those who want to push harmful gender transition surgeries and radical gender ideology on our kids,\u201d said Senator Marsha Blackburn. \u201cThe Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act would prohibit the use of federal funds for any research or study on gender transition surgeries for minors.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor years, our tax dollars have funded research that experiments on children using treatments proven to cause irreversible harm. That ends today,\u201d said Senator Cynthia Lummis. \u201cWashington has no business bankrolling the radical left\u2019s agenda and calling it medicine, especially when it's our kids on the receiving end. Children deserve to be protected from ideology, not used as subjects for it, and this bill will ensure that the federal government doesn\u2019t fund such experimentation.\"\n\n\u201cThousands of America\u2019s children have fallen prey to the Radical Left\u2019s woke gender ideology,\u201d said Senator Tommy Tuberville. \u201cAmerican families have been lied to for far too long as we know these surgeries cause irreversible harm. Subjecting healthy, developing children to damaging and harmful procedures without a grave medical purpose is BEYOND SICKENING. Taxpayers shouldn\u2019t be forced to pay for these extreme and reckless practices, or any of the left-wing propaganda promoting them. This vile attack on our children ends now with President Trump and his team. I\u2019m proud to join Senator Lee in this crucial bill to stop the abuse of America\u2019s children and enforce the President\u2019s pro-family agenda.\u201d\n\n\"Students for Life Action will always stand for children, born and preborn, protecting them from the harmful abortion industry and their new moneymaker, sterilizing drugs and surgeries. The abortion industry doesn't care what happens to children, as long as they never hold a child of their own. The Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act would protect children from this growing industry that is anti-child and anti-life. Students for Life Action stands with Senator Lee and the Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act.\" \u2013 Kristan Hawkins, President, Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action\n\n\u201cThe $4.5 billion Transgender Industrial Complex relies on pseudo-science to justify the sexual mutilation of children. Americans should never foot the bill for 'research' that permanently destroys kids' healthy bodies. The Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act provides commonsense protections to the family and to taxpayers. American Principles Project is proud to work with Sen. Lee on its passage.\u201d \u2013 Terry Schilling, President, American Principles Project\n\nThe Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act:\n\nProhibits the use of federal funds for any research, observational study, or publication, relating to gender transitions in individuals under the age of 18, which is conducted for the purpose of affirming a minor\u2019s asserted identity or perception of his or her sex, if such is incongruent with the minor\u2019s biological sex.", 1, "2026-08-01T07:27:26Z", "2026-08-01T07:28:22Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.lee.senate.gov/2026/7/lee-introduces-ban-on-federal-funding-for-child-mutilation-studies"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9622569195926189, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}