WASHINGTON —The White House on Wednesday asked the US Congress to approve $87.6 billion in additional funding, mostly to meet “urgent needs” connected with the US war on Iran, setting the stage for another fight with lawmakers already frustrated with the conflict.
The supplemental funding request, posted on the White House website and transmitted to Congress, includes $67.15 billion for the military, in addition to some $1 trillion appropriated last year and another $1.5 trillion President Donald Trump wants for next year.
The White House Office of Management and Budget sent the formal request for the funds on Wednesday in a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson.
“Most of this request will address urgent needs related to Operation Epic Fury (OEF),” says the letter, referring to the Iran war.
The request includes $21 billion for munitions, $17.3 billion for operational costs and $12.1 billion for classified programs. It also asks for about $300m to bolster security at US embassies and diplomatic outposts in the Middle East and South Asia after some of them came under attack earlier in the war.
The other requested money would be for unrelated measures, including $11 billion for US farmers and $1.4 billion to tackle the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa.
But the proposal faces an uphill battle in Congress. The Iran conflict is unpopular with voters ahead of the US midterm elections in November, though a ceasefire is currently in effect.
Trump has found himself at odds with some members of his Republican Party over the issue of Iran, and is alleged to have ended up in an angry exchange with one senator on Wednesday.
That senator, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, was one of a handful of Republicans who defied the president on Tuesday by voting to pass a measure demanding that he halt the war or seek congressional approval before continuing military action.
Cassidy fell back in line after his alleged sparring with the president, and after receiving assurances from members of Trump’s administration. He and others went on to vote down another similar measure in the Senate late on Wednesday.
Washington and Tehran are currently observing a ceasefire in the war, but the White House budget office letter notes that the Pentagon needs to “rebuild stocks” after its military strikes.
A peace plan was last week agreed between Trump and Iran, but dissident voices within the Republican Party have voiced skepticism about it.
The meeting between the president and senators on Wednesday was said to have been tense after Trump abruptly called off a signing ceremony for a housing bill that had bipartisan support.
At the lunch on Capitol Hill, Trump went on to complain about the measure that was passed the previous evening, when the Republican-controlled Senate narrowly voted to call for a restriction on his war powers.
Despite being largely symbolic, the measure was the first resolution of its kind to clear Congress that demanded a president to end a military action.
Last month, the Pentagon’s chief financial officer Jules Hurst told a congressional panel the war had cost about $29 billion so far.
But defense analysts and lawmakers say this estimate does not reflect the full scale of the conflict’s financial damage.
Source: Saudi Gazette