(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The White House sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday requesting an additional $87.6 billion in supplemental funding, with the vast majority going toward “costs incurred” by the US-Israeli war against Iran.
The White House Office of Budget Management told House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) that the nearly $70 billion earmarked for the Iran war would go toward “funding for military personnel and readiness expenses, operational costs to rebuild stocks expended by [the Department of War], classified programs, and other key expenses.”
Included in the $70 billion is $21 billion that will go to the Pentagon to “support critical capabilities, munitions procurement, and strengthen the US industrial base” as the US military used an enormous number of air defense interceptors and other munitions in the war and seeks to replenish its stockpiles.
The request is significantly higher than the Pentagon’s initial claim that, as of mid-May, the bill for the war was about $29 billion, and it lines up with independent analyses of the conflict’s costs. Journalist Stephen Semler of the Security Policy Reform Institute found that the war had cost about $72 billion in the first 60 days alone, an estimate that doesn’t account for indirect costs.
The $70 billion request for the Iran war is on top of the Pentagon’s record-breaking 2026 military budget, which topped $1 trillion for the first time, and the White House’s request for a nearly 50% increase in military spending for 2027 to bring the military budget to $1.5 trillion.
The White House is also asking Congress to provide $11.1 billion in economic assistance for American farmers, $1.4 billion for the Ebola virus outbreak in Central Africa, $1 billion to complete the renovation of Penn Station in New York City, and several other smaller costs.
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
