A House Oversight Committee panel is probing accusations that the Biden administration pressured a global medical recommendations body to drop age limit guidelines for transgender care.

‘The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating allegations of political interference by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in third-party medical organization recommendations,’ a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra sent on Tuesday read.

‘We are concerned that HHS officials, acting in their official capacity, inappropriately applied pressure for changes to international pediatric medical standards.’

The letter was written by Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., chair of the subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services. She cited a June 2024 New York Times report that the administration pressed the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) to remove its age limit recommendations for transgender youth surgeries because it ‘could fuel growing political opposition to such treatments.’

The pressure campaign was led by the staff of HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Rachel Levine, a transgender woman, according to the report.

‘Officials applied this inappropriate pressure by urging for the removal of age limits that expands the pool of children and adolescents recommended for irreversible gender transition surgical procedures. The Committee requests documents and information from HHS to assist our investigation of this matter,’ McClain wrote.

‘The Biden Administration’s advocacy for expanding the pool of vulnerable children subjected to life-altering procedures they may later regret is reprehensible. Emails indicating that this advocacy was done for political advantage – possibly to satisfy extremist elements of its base – is even more outrageous.’

The topic of transgender medical care, particularly for minors, has been a political lightening rod in recent years.

Backlash over the Times report prompted the White House to say it did not support gender-affirming surgery for minors. 

However, the White House later altered its response after backlash from progressive groups, telling 19th News that such surgeries ‘should be limited to adults,’ but, ‘We continue to support gender-affirming care for minors, which represents a continuum of care, and respect the role of parents, families, and doctors in these decisions.’

The 2021 medical guidelines at the heart of McClain’s Tuesday letter initially recommended lowering the acceptable age for transgender hormone therapy to 14, the age for mastectomies to 15 and 17 years for genital or hysterectomy procedures.

However, those limits were dropped from the final version of those recommendations, according to the Times.

In the outlet’s story, WPATH President Dr. Marci Bowers rejected accusations that the change was politically motivated. Bowers said ‘the politics were already evident’ and said the body ‘doesn’t look at politics when making a decision.’

Nevertheless, the subcommittee demanded that HHS turn over all relevant documents and communications by Sept. 10, and warned the department not to obstruct the probe.

‘Under your purview, HHS has not cooperated in good faith with the Committee’s oversight of HHS and its subagencies, including the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,’ the letter to Becerra said. 

‘It is unacceptable for HHS to interfere with congressional investigations by refusing and delaying cooperation with the Committee’s oversight.’

Fox News Digital reached out to HHS and the White House for comment but did not receive a response by press time. 

More than 200 Republicans who previously worked for former President George W. Bush, the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., or Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, penned an open letter Monday endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

The cohort of Republican officials, which also includes a handful of aides to former President George H.W. Bush, previously sought to rally voters against former President Donald Trump in 2020. In their letter, the GOP officials singled out ‘moderate Republicans and conservative independents,’ calling on them to vote for Harris.

‘Four years ago, President George W. Bush, the late Sen. John McCain, and then-Gov. Mitt Romney alumni came together to warn fellow Republicans that re-electing President Trump would be a disaster for our nation. In those declarations we stated the plain truth, each predicting that another four years of a Trump presidency would irreparably damage our beloved democracy,’ stated the letter, published Monday by USA Today.

‘We reunite today, joined by new George H.W. Bush alumni, to reinforce our 2020 statements and, for the first time, jointly declare that we’re voting for Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz this November,’ the letter continued. ‘Of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz. That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable.’

Monday’s big endorsement from GOP officials follows a separate endorsement released late last week from a dozen Republican White House lawyers who served under former President Ronald Reagan, as well as under both Bush administrations. Similar to the Monday endorsement, Republican officials argued that returning to a Trump administration ‘would threaten democracy and undermine the rule of law in our country.’

The Monday letter included nearly 240 signatures. It described Trump’s leadership as ‘chaotic’ and implied the former president wants to advance the goals of Project 2025 – a Republican blueprint for a potential GOP administration. Trump, however, has repeatedly sought to distance himself from the presidential transition blueprint, including during his recent visit to the southern border.

‘They’ve been told officially, legally, in every way, that we have nothing to do with Project 25,’ Trump said, according to NPR. ‘They know it, but they bring it up anyway. They bring up every single thing that you can bring up. Every one of them was false.’

Meanwhile, the Monday endorsement letter also charges Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, with ‘kowtow[ing]’ to dictators, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, while ‘turning their backs’ on U.S. allies. 

‘We can’t let that happen,’ the officials wrote. 

‘We know now, thanks to exit polling and voter data, that it was moderate Republicans and conservative independents in key swing states that ultimately delivered the presidency to Joe Biden,’ the open letter concluded. ‘We’re heartfully calling on these friends, colleagues, neighbors, and family members to take a brave stand once more, to vote for leaders that will strive for consensus, not chaos; that will work to unite, not divide; that will make our country and our children proud.’

In response to the letter, Trump Campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said, ‘It’s hilarious because nobody knows who these people are. They would rather see the country burn down than to see President Trump successfully return to the White House to Make America Great Again.’

One more Israeli hostage has been rescued.

The Israel Defense Force and Israel Security Agency announced Tuesday that another hostage taken during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack has been rescued.

‘The IDF and ISA have rescued Qaid Farhan Alkadi from Gaza where he was held hostage, and brought him to his family in Israel. This operation was part of the IDF’s daring and courageous activities conducted deep inside the Gaza strip,’ said Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.

‘This operation joins a series of actions taken by the IDF that bring us closer to achieving the goals of this war,’ Gallant continued. ‘I would like to reiterate and emphasize: Israel is committed to taking advantage of every opportunity to return the hostages home to Israel.’

Qaid Farhan Alkadi from Rahat was reportedly rescued by a mixed company of Israeli combatants, including members of the 401st Brigade, 162nd Division, and Shayetet 13.

Members of the engineering combat spec-ops unit Yahalom and intelligence operatives from the Israel Security Agency also contributed to the rescue.

Alkadi, 52, has been held in the Gaza Strip for almost a year. No further details are being made available on the nature of the rescue operation, ‘due to considerations of the safety of our hostages, the security of our forces, and national security.’

He is currently being held in the hospital for medical care and is undergoing extensive health checks. He is in stable condition.

Alkadi’s family has been alerted to his recovery and are being accompanied by IDF personnel to meet with him.

Following the rescue of Alkadi, 108 Israeli hostages remain under terrorists’ control in the Gaza Strip. 36 are confirmed dead.

The vast majority were taken during the Oct. 7 attack last year and have been held for over 320 days.

Fox News Digital’s Yonat Friling contributed to this report.

The White House insisted again Monday that President Biden remains in charge of the country despite being on a second straight week of vacation. 

During a teleconference Monday, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby recognized the three-year-anniversary of the Aug. 26, 2021, Abbey Gate suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans outside Kabul Airport. 

Biden, who is at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for the week, notably remained out of public view on the anniversary of the deadly terrorist attack. Last week, Biden was vacationing in California, including when the Israeli military said they launched a preemptive strike destroying thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers in Lebanon, essentially deterring a major attack by the terrorist group intended for central Israel.  

A journalist noted Biden’s public absence in a question to Kirby on Monday.

‘The President’s public comportment and the paucity of events on his public schedule, as on this very day, have fostered a public perception that Mr. Biden is increasingly disengaged from the presidency,’ Newsmax’s James Rosen said on the teleconference. ‘Time and again, the question I am hearing from members of the general public, and which I put to you here, Admiral, is: Who is running the country?’

‘Is he a ceremonial figure in some sense at this point?’ he added. 

‘James, now you know better than that. I mean, my goodness, he talked to Prime Minister Modi today,’ Kirby said of Biden. ‘He had calls with leaders in the region and in Europe, President Zelenskyy, last week.  He monitored in real time what was going on over the weekend. I mean, come on.’ 

‘The President is on vacation, but you can never unplug from a job like that, nor does he try to,’ Kirby added. ‘He’s very much in command of making sure we can continue to protect our national security interests here at home and certainly overseas.’ 

Former President Trump participated in a wreath laying ceremony Monday with relatives of the 13 fallen at Arlington National Cemetery. Biden and Vice President Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, were both absent but released separate statements listing the names of the 13 U.S. service members killed. 

Some of the relatives of the fallen took to the stage of the Republican National Convention last month to condemn Biden for never publicly stating their names, and the Trump campaign doubled down on their criticism of the Biden-Harris administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal, noting that Harris had ‘bragged’ about being the last person in the room with Biden before he made the decision.

The Trump campaign on Monday also slammed how neither Biden nor Harris, despite their written statements, have ever said the names of the 13 Americans killed out loud publicly and stressed how their handling of the withdrawal ‘stranded thousands of American citizens and left billions of dollars worth of U.S. equipment behind for the Taliban.’ 

The statements from Biden and Harris each noted that ‘America’s longest war’ was over and remembered the 2,461 U.S. service members killed and the 20,744 wounded during the two-decade-long conflict.