Congress is anticipating a request from the White House for supplemental funds for the war with Iran, but there are only guesses about the timing and the amount of the request.
One veteran lawmaker said he expects the request to be in the tens of billions of dollars.
The House and Senate have received classified briefings from top administration officials this week about the Iran strikes, and some lawmakers emerged with more questions, including when the request for more money will come.
“They’re going to need money, so, obviously, they have to talk to us,” said Sen. Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican and chair of the House Armed Services Committee. “It doesn’t surprise me, given what we’re doing over there.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican and a fiscal hawk, said he anticipates that Congress “will give the administration what it needs.”
Other Republicans were also open to the idea of giving whatever’s needed for the fight.
“I’m open to what they need,” said Sen. John Hoeven, North Dakota Republican. “We’ve been in this war on terror for 20 years, and how are we ever going to end this global war on terror if you don’t take out the No. 1 perpetrator? And that’s Iran – state sponsor of terror, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and beyond.”
Any additional money would come on top of the nearly $1 trillion budget the Defense Department currently has and the more than $150 billion it received from the passage of President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” bill last summer.
As the spending decision looms, the House shot down a war powers resolution on Thursday that aimed to stop Mr. Trump from taking further military action in Iran without congressional backing, a day after the Senate blocked a similar measure.
The resolution, introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, and backed by Democrats, failed in a 212-219 vote.
Mr. Trump said Monday that the U.S. has a “virtually unlimited” supply of munitions.
“Wars can be fought ‘forever’ and very successfully using just these supplies (which are better than other countries finest arms!),” he wrote on social media. “At the highest end, we have a good supply, but not where we want to be. Much additional high-grade weaponry is stored for us in outlying countries.”
But sources told Threat Status at The Washington Times that the Trump administration is expected to meet with top defense industry leaders later this week, including L3Harris, Lockheed Martin and RTX, the larger company over Raytheon.
Democratic support will be needed to pass a supplemental due to the slim Republican majority, but most Democrats agree that more information is needed before they sign off on additional money.
“The details matter. We need to look at what portion of this goes to munitions, does this degrade our readiness if we don’t support this?” said House Democratic Caucus Chair Peter Aguilar, California Democrat. “These are all questions that committees of jurisdiction … will all kind of dig in once they send this over.”
Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees defense spending, said for “responsible planning,” it would be “minimally prudent for the Pentagon” to seek funding and replacement for the munitions the U.S. has been using.
“I’ve spoken to leadership at the Pentagon about it. I’ve spoken to my colleague, Sen. [Mitch] McConnell [Kentucky Republican,] about it and I think we need to be clear-eyed about how this poorly planned, ill-conceived war is putting at risk our capacity to defend American bases, American civilians, and be prepared for the full range of contingencies that are part of planning for our national security,” he said.
He said he wouldn’t be “warmly receptive to an open-ended ‘we just need more’” request from the White House, but said he expects the request to be in the tens of billions of dollars.
“What I think the administration owes the American people is an argument for how long is this going to last, and how does this end, so that we have any idea of the scope,” he said.
– Lindsey McPherson and John T. Seward contributed to this report.
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