Gun Silencers, Tanning Beds And Other Weird Stuff Tucked Into The GOP's Tax Bill

WASHINGTON – When House Republicans passed President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy package in the wee hours of Thursday, they didn’t just approve giving trillions of dollars in tax cuts to rich people while kicking down millions of poor people. 

They made it easier to get gun silencers. And quietly removed a weird provision about tanning beds. And expanded a ban on gender-affirming care. And, in a show of fealty to the president, they came up with a new name for tax-saving accounts that the government would seed with $1,000 for babies born in the next few years: “Trump Accounts.”

There was already a lot going on in the GOP’s 1,100-page bill, which is actually called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But things got confusing late Wednesday when Republicans unveiled a 42-page amendment with all kinds of eleventh-hour changes. They released their new language as the House Rules Committee was entering its 20th hour of a hearing on the bill, and Democrats barely had time to make sense of all the changes.

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They’re a lot clearer now. Here are some of the weird and last-minute things Republicans slipped into their bill, which is now headed to the Senate and already hitting a wall over there.

Making It Easier To Get Gun Silencers

In order to win over the vote of Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, GOP leaders slipped language into the bill making it easier for people to buy gun silencers. Specifically, the bill eliminates a $200 firearm registration fee for silencers and removes a requirement that people have to register their silencers at all.

During the late-night rules committee hearing, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) howled about this “magical amendment” suddenly being part of the bill. She noted the federal tax on gun silencers has been in place since 1934.

“It’s a brazen attempt to make it easier to commit violent crimes,” said Scanlon as she unsuccessfully tried to strip it from the bill. “I think this is sneaky. I think it’s a radical policy change with no explanation for why this longstanding federal policy should be overturned in the middle of the night.”

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the rules panel, ripped Republicans for slipping the unrelated gun provision into their tax bill.

“Quite frankly, what is in this reconciliation bill, you know, does more to support assassins than it does American families,” McGovern said.

When a Republican on the committee laughed him off, the Massachusetts Democrat fired back, “You know what? Talk to law enforcement. Talk to people who have been victims of gun violence. I know you think it’s funny, but I don’t.”

Axing ― And Then Keeping ― A Tax On Tanning Beds

For some reason, Republicans initially included language in the bill to repeal a federal excise tax on indoor tanning services. But it appears they were shamed into taking it out at the last minute.

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) flagged the provision in Wednesday’s Rules Committee hearing and asked Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who was testifying before the committee, to read the line item out loud. He refused.

“So that the American public knows what this bill does… Would you please read page 901, line 20?” Leger Fernández asked Smith.

“I think it’d be better if you read it,” Smith replied.

“Oh, he doesn’t want to read it!” Leger Fernández said with a laugh. “This is in their bill. They don’t want to read a line from their own bill.”

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) eventually read the provision aloud: “It says Section 11106: Repeal of excise tax on indoor tanning services.”

Amid more laughs, Leger Fernández contrasted the provision, which makes it easier to own a tanning bed, with the bill’s drastic cuts to Medicaid and food assistance. She took a shot at Trump’s tanning habits and wondered aloud if he put that language into the bill.

“There are certain elected officials who appear to have a certain orange hue about them,” she said. “Maybe they want to make sure tanning beds get a little bit of special credit.”

The tanning bed provision was mysteriously gone in the final bill.

Expanding A Ban On Gender-Affirming Care

An eagle-eyed reporter first flagged a slight change in wording in the final bill that significantly expanded a ban on using Medicaid or CHIP funding for gender-affirming care. The GOP bill initially imposed this prohibition on minors, but its final language applies the ban to anyone relying on these programs.

“The House Republican budget bill passed this morning shows that anti-trans policies remain a top priority for both the party and the Trump administration,” said Imara Jones, CEO of Trans Lash Media, an independent news organization that tells the stories of transgender people.

“The fact that they are willing to ban federally funded health care for trans people of all ages — including adults on Medicaid and children enrolled in CHIP — shows that the goal all along has been to push trans people from public life,” Jones said in a statement.

Creating ‘Trump Accounts’ For New Babies (Really)

The GOP bill creates a new incentive for women to make more babies by paying them $1,000 for every American baby born over the next four years.

For babies born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Jan. 1, 2029, the federal government would deposit $1,000 into an account called a “Trump account.” That money would then be invested on their behalf in financial markets, and when the baby grows up, he or she can withdraw from their “Trump Account” for things like going to college or buying a house. The kid’s parents can also contribute to the account.

The GOP decided this money would be deposited into something called a “money account for growth and advancement” account, or “MAGA account.” But that didn’t seem to sufficiently suck up to Trump, so at the eleventh hour, they renamed these accounts after him.

Reversing Course On Selling Public Lands In Utah, Nevada

In a rare win for people who care about the environment, Republicans removed language from the final bill that would have allowed for the sale of public lands in Nevada and Utah. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who served as Trump’s interior secretary in his first term, had threatened to vote against the bill unless this language was stripped.

Environmental groups praised Zinke for his efforts, even if the overall bill is terrible.

“The American people have spoken loud and clear - our public lands should not be for sale,” Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, said in a statement.

“Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle were right to throw this proposal in the trash can, but a bad bill is still a bad bill,” he said. “As written, Donald Trump’s reconciliation package is a giveaway to corporate polluters that would make it easier for billionaires to drill, mine, and log the public lands that belong to all Americans, from the Arctic Refuge to the desert landscapes of the southwest.”

Closing Up To One-Third Of Planned Parenthood Health Centers

The final bill could result in the closure of as many as 200 Planned Parenthood health centers, or one-third of all these health centers nationwide.

These closures would come as a result of the bill’s new ban on gender-affirming care for all Medicaid patients and its provisions aimed at eliminating health plans that include abortion coverage from the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

The consequences of these health centers closing would be “catastrophic,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood.

“If Congress passes its reconciliation bill as written, an estimated 200 Planned Parenthood health centers could close, leaving entire communities and regions without access to essential health care,” Johnson said in a statement. “Cancers will go undetected, birth control will be harder to get, and the public health infrastructure – already pushed to the brink – will break down.”

“Instead of actually helping their constituents, politicians want to stop them from getting care at Planned Parenthood health centers and impose their beliefs on everyone else,” she said.

A Quietly Removed Provision To Let Trump Operate As A King 

Someone initially put language in the bill that attempted to let Trump circumvent the nation’s courts and, essentially, serve as a king:

“No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued….”

Translated, this provision would strip all federal courts, including the Supreme Court, of the ability to hold Trump or members of his administration in contempt of court.

Not only would this violate the Constitution, but its timing is eerie, as Trump has been flouting an order by the Supreme Court to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a legal U.S. resident who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. The administration has also been ignoring orders from lower courts to stop deporting migrants without giving them due process.

It’s not clear which Republican put this language into the bill in the first place, but it was curiously stripped out of the final bill.

More Aggressive Work Requirements For Medicaid Recipients

At the last minute, Republicans revised their bill to expedite the timeline for imposing work requirements on Medicaid recipients.

After initially including language triggering these requirements at the start of 2029, the final bill moved up the date to the end of 2026.

As a result of the GOP’s stricter work requirement for federal health and food programs, an estimated 14 million people may lose their health coverage, and 3 million households may go without food assistance.

Not Totally Screwing Federal Workers Out Of Retirement Benefits

Republicans originally used their bill to change the formula for calculating federal employees’ earned benefits by basing it on a worker’s five top years of earnings, versus three years under current law.

But by the end, they kept the formula where it was. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) was among those who had pushed back on this change, saying it wasn’t fair to do this to current federal workers, who have already been enduring chaos, stress and fear of losing their jobs for months thanks to the sloppy work of Elon Musk and his surrogates at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

“Making changes to pensions and retirement benefits in the middle of someone’s employment is wrong,” Turner said during a committee hearing on the bill last month.

“Changing the rules, especially when someone has already been vested in their benefits, is wrong,” he said. “Employee benefits are not a gift, they’re earned.”

A Random Perk For Purple Heart Recipients

If you’re someone who received a Purple Heart during your military service and you’re looking for more tax credits after your Social Security disability benefits were cut because you got a job, this bill has you covered.

The GOP bill would increase the amount of your Earned Income Tax Credit by the sum of your Social Security disability insurance benefits terminated as a result of you getting a job.