FORT WORTH, Texas — Some members of Congress think it’s time to cut off the cash to Army Maj. Nidal Hasan.

On the eve of opening statements in the court-martial of Hasan, the defendant in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage, lawmakers have proposed suspending military pay for service men and women charged with certain crimes.

They say they are frustrated that Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged with multiple counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder in one of the worst mass shootings on a military base, has received paychecks totaling nearly $300,000 while locked up.

“It is outrageous that taxpayers continue to pay an accused terrorist that killed more than a dozen people,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. “Does anyone think this make sense? You are innocent until proven guilty in this country, but that doesn’t mean you should be rewarded while awaiting trial.”

The Stop Pay for Violent Offenders Act has been filed in the U.S. House — to let the military suspend pay for those arrested and charged with rape, sexual assault or a capital offense — by Reps. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., Tom Rooney, R-Fla., and Frank Wolf, R-Va.

“The fact that the sole suspect in this attack, Nidal Hasan, a major in the U.S. Army, has continued to draw his Army salary — costing taxpayers more than $278,000 — is outrageous,” Griffin said.

Current law lets the military stop paying civilian employees, but officials say they can’t stop paying military members on active service, such as Hasan, unless they are convicted.

“This bill would correct a huge oversight that has allowed military personnel charged with a serious crime to continue to receive their pay while awaiting trial,” Wolf said. “Does anybody really think it’s right that Nidal Hasan has collected more than $200,000 in taxpayer dollars since being charged in the Fort Hood shootings?”

The House voted [last] Tuesday to prevent anyone convicted of a sex crime from enlisting in the military, this time by using the power of the purse.

The Defense Department already moved in March to prohibit anyone convicted of rape, sexual abuse, sexual assault or incest from entering the military, but Marine Corps veteran Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., convinced the House to go one step further during debate on the $512.4 billion defense appropriations bill for fiscal 2014. Kline’s amendment, passed by voice vote, prohibits any military funds from being spent to waive the restrictions to allow any exceptions to the policy.

House and Senate versions of separate 2014 defense authorization bill, which includes policy matters, contain provisions that would put current Pentagon policy barring enlistment of anyone convicted of sexual crimes into law. Whether any waivers would be possible depends on the legislative language that is signed into law.

“This is a serious issue,” said Kline, whose wife, Vicky, is a retired Army nurse and whose son served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The number of sexual assault victims in the military is unacceptable and I remain committed to preventing potential predators from joining our ranks.”

Before passage of Kline’s amendment, the funding bill already included provisions aimed at improving sexual assault prevention programs. In the report accounting the bill, the House Appropriations Committee says it is “outraged by the pervasive problem of sexual assault in the Armed Forces. Sexual assault is not just an issue in the military; it is an epidemic.”

The committee called for a “culture change at every level of the military, from the most senior leadership to the most junior ranks,” to attack the problem.

While the Obama administration has been at odds with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on appropriations bills, a July 22 statement of administration policy on the defense funding bill says it “appreciates the support of the committee in working to eliminate the threat that sexual assault in the military presents to our service members and our national security.”

As the military begins to embrace gays and lesbians, one group feels left out: transgender troops.

These men and women weren’t even a blip on the nation’s radar until former Navy SEAL Team 6 member Chris Beck revealed in a memoir released last month that he had become Kristin Beck, a woman. It’s unknown how many transgender troops are serving in the U.S. military, largely because they’d get kicked out for coming out. About 700,000 Americans in a population of more than 300 million are transsexuals, according to a 2011 study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

Another milestone in June: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel seemed to sanction their service when he addressed a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride (LGBT) event at the Pentagon. But there was a catch: civilians can switch sexes and keep their defense jobs. Troops can’t. Unlike allies Great Britain, Israel and Canada, the U.S. military disqualifies transgender troops for health reasons.

“I was at the Pentagon when Secretary Hagel was saying we’re here to celebrate LGBT service,” says an Army sergeant who is becoming a man. The sergeant spoke on condition of anonymity to stay in the service.

“I’m kind of looking around for the rest of Ts,” the soldier says, referring to transgender troops. Other troops could celebrate marriage equality, the sergeant says, but not the transsexuals.

Transgender pride extends to Defense Department civilian employees such as Amanda Simpson, a senior Army official who was a man. Simpson, named to her post by President Obama, is the highest-ranking openly transgender official. She declined to comment for this story.

That pride stops with troops transitioning to the opposite sex.

For now, the Pentagon has no plans to cross that line, says Navy Lt. Cdr. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman. They’re medically disqualified, according to Pentagon regulations. Army regulations, for instance, prohibit transvestism.

Advocates for transgender people say the prohibition has no merit.

“We shouldn’t single out transgender individuals,” says Anne Speckhard, a psychologist who co-wrote Warrior Princess with Beck.