Congressional Democrats are pushing the federal government to make it easier for LGBTQ federal workers to access fertility treatments.

More than 30 House Democrats, plus Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., wrote a letter to the Office of Personnel Management claiming the definition of ‘infertility’ in existing government employee health plans was ‘outdated and lacks inclusivity.’

‘By adopting an inclusive definition that recognizes the full spectrum of reproductive needs and removing unnecessary barriers to coverage, we can ensure that all federal employees, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status, have access to the comprehensive reproductive health care they deserve,’ the lawmakers said. 

HOSPITAL INSIDER WARNS TRANS KIDS ON HORMONES FREQUENTING ER FOR HARMING THEMSELVES IN CRY FOR HELP 

The letter is also led by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., among others.

Meanwhile, Democrats have been attacking their GOP counterparts in Congress for passing bills they claim infringe on the LGBTQ community’s rights. 

Just last month, House Republicans added amendments to the annual National Defense Authorization Act that would stop military health care from covering surgeries and hormone treatments for transgender troops. Both sides of the aisle have also butted heads over taxpayer dollars being given to LGBTQ organizations.

‘We would like to highlight two specific concerns with the current definition of infertility used by OPM,’ the letter states. ‘First, the requirement of six cycles of Artificial Insemination or Intrauterine Insemination performed by a qualified specialist using normal quality donor sperm, while excluding other assisted reproductive technologies, is both arbitrary and unnecessarily restrictive.

‘The number of cycles required in the definition does not take into account an infertility diagnosis that may occur when a patient is evaluated, leading to inconsistent and unequal coverage for individuals seeking alternative methods of conception. Furthermore, this policy creates unnecessary barriers and costs for LGBTQ people by excluding consideration of at-home inseminations.’

The second concern, they said, was that ‘the definition fails to account for same-sex couples and single individuals.’

‘By limiting coverage to these individuals only after six cycles of insemination with donor sperm, we are effectively denying them access to necessary fertility treatments, placing an undue burden on their path to parenthood,’ the letter said. 

Fertility treatments like intrauterine insemination and in vitro fertilization typically cost thousands of dollars out of pocket and are not always covered by health insurance policies. 

As of June 2023, just 21 states have laws requiring insurance companies to provide some kind of fertility treatment, according to RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association.

President Biden has taken fire this week for reportedly using aliases and ‘secret’ email addresses as vice president in messages to his son Hunter Biden, who had business in Ukraine at the time. Under former President Barack Obama’s administration, White House officials defended the use of alternate email addresses.

During a 2013 press briefing, the Obama-Biden White House, amid accusations that individuals within the administration had been using ‘secret’ email addresses for correspondence, highlighted its belief that using ‘alternate email addresses’ for high-ranking officials made ’eminent sense.’

While fielding questions from reporters at the briefing, Jay Carney, White House press secretary at the time, was asked about a story from The Associated Press that claimed a variety of senior administration officials possessed secret email addresses.

Additionally, Carney was asked by the same reporter what the protocol would be for the administration to release that correspondence via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and whether the contents from both email addresses — or just the public one or the ‘secret’ one — would be released should there be a congressional inquiry about a given subject.

‘Let’s be clear — this is a practice consistent with prior administrations of both parties, and, as the story itself made clear, any FOIA request or congressional inquiry includes a search in all of the email accounts used by any political appointee,’ Carney responded.

‘So the answer is, all of this information is provided. Having alternate email addresses for cabinet secretaries and other high-profile officials makes eminent sense, much as it does for columnists, for example, of major publications who provide email addresses for their readers but have alternate work email addresses so that if they are inundated in one account with either public emails or spam or the like, that they can continue to use their other account for normal work,’ he added. 

‘And that is the case with officials of this administration, officials of the previous administrations who have had email addresses.

‘And the fundamental question here, in terms of FOIA requests and congressional inquiries, is that all of these email addresses are included.’

The decade-old acknowledgment by the Obama-Biden White House comes into play as Republicans in the House continue to investigate Biden’s involvement with his family’s overseas business dealings and request certain email communications he had during his time as vice president.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent a letter to the National Archives Wednesday requesting unredacted emails from President Biden’s tenure as vice president, when Biden allegedly used a handful of pseudonyms to correspond with others.

Specifically, Comer is looking to review unredacted versions of emails released by the National Archives under ‘Case Number 2023-0022-F,’ titled on the agency’s website as ‘Email Messages To and/or From Vice President Biden and Hunter Biden related to Burisma and Ukraine.’

In the letter to archivist Colleen Shogan, Comer made a request for any ‘document or communication in which a pseudonym for Vice President Joe Biden was included either as a sender, recipient, copied or was included in the contents of the document or communication, including but not limited to Robert Peters, Robin Ware, and JRB Ware.’

Comer also seeks any ‘document or communication in which Hunter Biden, Eric Schwerin, or Devon Archer was included either as a sender, recipient, copied, or was included in the contents of the document or communication’ and all ‘drafts from November 1, 2015, to December 9, 2015, of then-Vice President Biden’s speech delivered to the Ukrainian Rada on December 9, 2015.’

‘Joe Biden has stated there was ‘an absolute wall’ between his family’s foreign business schemes and his duties as vice president, but evidence reveals that access was wide open for his family’s influence peddling,’ Comer said in a statement. 

‘We already have evidence of then-Vice President Biden speaking, dining and having coffee with his son’s foreign business associates,’ he added. ‘We also know that Hunter Biden and his associates were informed of then-Vice President Biden’s official government duties in countries where they had a financial interest. The National Archives must provide these unredacted records to further our investigation into the Biden family’s corruption.’

A 2021 report from the New York Post noted that Biden used the pseudonyms ‘Robin Ware,’ ‘Robert L. Peters’ and ‘JRB ware’ on e-mails that ‘mixed official and family business.’

Previous emails released by the agency showed that Biden used the email address ‘Robert.L.Peters@pci.gov’ during his time as vice president and that his aide, John Flynn, copied Hunter Biden on 10 emails containing the elder Biden’s daily schedule between May 18 and June 15, 2016, according to the Post.

FBI records made public in September 2016 revealed Obama also used a pseudonym in email correspondence with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others, according to Politico.

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, unloaded on ‘radical left elitists’ as he defended his vote against President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. 

Golden’s leadership as co-chair of the moderate House Democratic Blue Dog Coalition was spotlighted by the Maine Beacon Friday after financial disclosures showed the group got a donation from student loan servicing giant Sallie Mae about two weeks after he voted against Biden’s plan. 

He was one of just two Democrats to do so in the lower chamber. 

‘Sadly, this is what radical leftist elites are learning about ‘democracy’ these days — silence and destroy anyone who disagrees with your views or goals. I stand by my vote and my opposition to forking out $10,000 to people who freely chose to attend college,’ Golden said in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter.

He did not directly address the Maine Beacon or Sallie Mae’s donation, though he linked the relevant article in his post. Golden dismissed the scrutiny as a product of social media outrage. 

‘The Twitterati can keep bemoaning their privileged status and demanding handouts all they want, but as far as I’m concerned, if they want free money for college, they can join the Marines and serve the country like I, and so many others, have in the past, and many more will in the future,’ Golden said.

‘If they want a career and hard skills without college debt, they should join a union and enter an apprenticeship. But if they choose to attend college, they can pay back their loans just like working class people pay back home mortgages, car loans, and many other expenses that people choose to take out loans for.’

A House Republican-led bill aimed at repealing Biden’s student loan proposal, which has since been struck down by the Supreme Court, passed the House nearly along party lines in May. 

Golden and his fellow Blue Dog co-chair, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez, D-Wash., were the only Democrats who voted with the GOP to pass it. The measure also passed the Senate with some Democratic support but was eventually vetoed by the president.

On June 14, the Blue Dog Coalition received a $5,000 donation from Sallie Mae, according to public financial disclosures. It’s the maximum amount allowed under current law. 

Biden has pledged his administration would pursue alternative pathways aimed at student debt forgiveness.

A Biden administration crackdown has reportedly resulted in hundreds of gun dealers losing their licenses which has sparked anger and the belief by the dealers that they are being targeted.

During the last fiscal year that started in October, 122 gun dealers had their licenses revoked by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives which is up from 90 the year before and 27 in 2021, Wall Street Journal reported.

During the Trump and Obama presidencies, the number of licenses revoked never exceeded 81. 

Some in the gun industry are crying foul and suggesting that they are being unfairly targeted for political reasons over paperwork errors as part of an agenda to combat gun violence which President Biden has vocally pushed.

‘We were making $1 million a year, now it’s less than $100,000,’ Anthony Navarro, a gun dealer who lost his license last year after receiving three warnings for legal violations since 2009, told Wall Street Journal. ‘This policy is designed to be a backdoor violation of the Second Amendment.’ 

Navarro said he was issued warnings over mistakes gun purchasers made on paperwork but that they weren’t prohibited from buying guns.

Others have pointed out that gun dealers are typically strong allies of the federal government in terms of providing tips on suspicious gun buyers and that the working relationship could be harmed by the crackdown. 

‘The gun dealers were our first line of defense against gun trafficking,’ Peter Forcelli, a retired deputy assistant director, told Wall Street Journal. ‘Why are we now beating an ally into submission?’

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the ATF said it is following the law. 

‘Federal Firearms Licensees are often our first line of defense against gun crime and are often a source of critical enforcement information that helps law enforcement identify straw purchasers and disrupt firearms trafficking schemes,’ ATF Spokesperson Kristina Mastropasqua said. ‘FFLs that willfully violate the law, however, must be held accountable. ATF conducts inspections to ensure compliance with applicable local, state, and federal laws and regulations and to educate licensees on the specific requirements of those laws and regulations.’

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

James Buckley, a former U.S. senator from New York and judge on the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit, died Friday at 100 years old.

Buckley, the older brother of National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr., is one of the few people to have served in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the Federal government.

The former judge died at a hospital in Washington, D.C., according to his son, David Buckley, of Arlington, Virginia.

Buckley was born on March 9, 1923. He went to the Millbrook School in New York and then on to Yale, where he majored in English. He served in the Navy and fought in the Far East during World War II. Later, he went to Yale Law School and became a corporate lawyer. 

In 1953, Jim Buckley married Ann Frances Coole, who died in 2011.

His illustrious political career began when he managed his brother’s mayoral campaign in 1965.

He went on to become senator in 1970 as part of the Conservative Party of New York.

Buckley is famous for challenging campaign finance laws in the wake of a post-Watergate world in the landmark Supreme Court case Buckley v. Valeo. 

In March 1974, Buckley shocked Republicans by calling on President Richard Nixon to resign and to pull the nation ‘out of the Watergate swamp’ and save the office of the presidency.

Buckley lost his senate seat in a reelection campaign to Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1976, the same year he officially switched to the Republican Party. 

He later served in the Reagan administration as an undersecretary for security assistance in the U.S. Department of State and was later nominated by Reagan to a position as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.