The Pentagon has informed senators that it needs approximately $80 billion, primarily to cover expenses from the US conflict with Iran, adding to the already substantial increase in military spending sought by President Donald Trump.
The White House Office of Management and Budget has not yet submitted a formal request to Congress, but Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has been meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including on Monday evening. According to two people familiar with the discussions who were not authorised to speak publicly, a senior deputy defence secretary briefed senators on the Iran-related funding request last week.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report these developments. The bid for tens of billions in war funding comes at a politically sensitive moment. Many lawmakers question Trump’s agreement with Iran to end the conflict and remain uncertain about what comes next. The White House is seeking an extraordinary $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon, nearly a 50 per cent increase compared to the current fiscal year.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he anticipates a supplemental funding request for the war from the administration and noted that once it arrives, “we’ll work through it and see where the votes are.”
“We need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to replenish and resupply a lot of our munitions that have been depleted, not just because of Iran, but beforehand as well,” said Thune, R-S.D.
Deputy Defence Secretary Stephen Feinberg spoke with several senators about the proposal in calls last week and notified congressional committees that the $80 billion request had been sent to the Office of Management and Budget. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Still, the funding package is likely to face resistance from lawmakers opposed to Trump’s decision to go to war and hesitant to increase Pentagon spending at a time when Americans are struggling with high living costs.
“You’re spending families’ hard-earned tax dollars on a war that many strongly oppose,” Democratic Sen. Patty Murray told Hegseth during a hearing last month.
Alongside the Iran funding, Republicans are aiming to secure roughly $1.1 trillion through the regular appropriations process, which typically requires bipartisan support. They then plan to pursue an additional $350 billion through a primarily party-line vote later this summer.
The Pentagon’s current request is significantly higher than the $29 billion war-cost estimate Hegseth presented to Congress last month. Most of that earlier estimate focused on replacing munitions and repairing equipment, along with covering operational expenses for deployed forces. It did not include the cost of repairing or rebuilding damaged US military facilities in the region.
At the same time, the $80 billion figure is well below the Pentagon’s initial estimate of $200 billion at the onset of the war. Early calculations pegged the cost of the first week of fighting at $11.3 billion.
Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, a member of the Democratic leadership, said he believes the actual cost could exceed the proposed $80 billion.
Schatz said he has not surveyed Democrats about supporting an Iran-focused bill, “but I haven’t found anyone who wants to do this.”
Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana, however, said his priority is less about the war itself and more about rebuilding US stockpiles.
“I would sell it to my state as an investment in our defence industrial base, reshoring defence production to Indiana,” Banks said.
Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said any supplemental funding for Iran must be addressed as part of broader negotiations. Lawmakers from both parties need to agree on overall spending levels for both defence and non-defence programs first; “then the rest of this would follow pretty quickly,” Reed said.
