{"id":19565,"date":"2026-03-04T00:46:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/lawmakers-anticipate-trump-will-seek-emergency-funding-for-open-ended-iran-war\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T00:46:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:46:50","slug":"lawmakers-anticipate-trump-will-seek-emergency-funding-for-open-ended-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/lawmakers-anticipate-trump-will-seek-emergency-funding-for-open-ended-iran-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers anticipate Trump will seek emergency funding for \u2018open-ended\u2019 Iran war"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Lawmakers given classified briefings Tuesday evening on the U.S. military conflict in Iran expect President Donald Trump will ask Congress for emergency cash to finance the war.<\/p>\n

During the closed-door meetings on Capitol Hill, top Trump administration officials said only that they are considering a supplemental military funding request, according to lawmakers who attended the briefings. But senior intelligence and defense officials described a vast military operation that many members anticipate will require extra funding on top of the nearly $1 trillion Congress has already given the military over the last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there will be a supplemental coming,\u201d Sen. Lindsey Graham<\/a> (R-S.C.) told reporters upon leaving his classified Senate briefing. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to approve that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Chris Murphy<\/a> of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Senate committee overseeing funding for the Department of Homeland Security, said after the briefing that the military operation \u201cfeels like a multitrillion-dollar, open-ended conflict with a very confusing and constantly shifting set of goals\u201d because top Trump administration officials \u201care refusing to take off the table ground operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Josh Hawley<\/a> (R-Mo.) also described the U.S.-Iran conflict as \u201ca massive operation\u201d that\u2019s \u201crapidly changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounded very open-ended to me,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Some lawmakers typically opposed to increased spending are open to the idea of providing extra money to fuel the U.S. military\u2019s operation against Iran. \u201cI think it would have support of Republicans,\u201d Sen. Ron Johnson<\/a> (R-Wis.) said about a supplemental funding request Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody always wants money, any excuse, whether they\u2019ll need it or not. My guess: They\u2019ll need it,\u201d Johnson continued. \u201cWe’re shooting off a lot of ammo. Gotta restock.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Democratic votes will be needed to pass any emergency funding package in the Senate, and minority party leaders say they will need far more details from the Trump administration if they are going to consider support for new Pentagon cash.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore you can feel satisfied about a supplemental \u2014 and I haven\u2019t seen it \u2014 you have to know what the real goals are and what the endgame is,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> told reporters Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Delaware Sen. Chris Coons<\/a>, a senior Democratic appropriator, said he expects the Pentagon will send Congress a supplemental funding request and vowed to \u201cmake sure we are making all the investments we can\u201d to keep U.S. troops safe.<\/p>\n

But Coons said Trump administration officials need to testify at an open hearing so \u201cthe American people can get questions answered about the failures in planning that led to some of the challenges, losses and mistakes in this war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any supplemental spending package to support the Iran war effort would come on top of the more than $150 billion the Pentagon got from the party-line tax and spending package Republicans enacted last summer and nearly $839 billion in regular funding Congress cleared last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The House\u2019s lead Democratic appropriator, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro<\/a>, said lawmakers have yet to receive information about how much the Pentagon has spent already.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re talking about a supplemental, but we haven’t got a clue,\u201d DeLauro told reporters after Trump administration officials briefed House lawmakers later Tuesday. \u201cThere’s no cost estimate of what they have spent so far. Is there anybody writing down what the hell they’re spending? No.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune<\/a> said Tuesday that Republicans \u201cforward-funded\u201d military operations with the party-line package enacted last summer but that lawmakers will be \u201cpaying attention\u201d to any need for extra money.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only do we have the resources to conduct the operations right now, but a lot of our allies in the region also have capabilities that are coming to bear now,\u201d Thune said.<\/p>\n

Even before the strikes on Iran, Trump was eyeing a massive hike in military spending for the upcoming fiscal year. He pledged to pursue a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget, a roughly 50 percent increase to military spending.<\/p>\n

The president said Tuesday, however, that U.S. military resources are far from depleted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons,\u201d Trump said on social media. \u201cWars can be fought \u2018forever,\u2019 and very successfully, using just these supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Connor O\u2019Brien, Joe Gould and Calen Razor contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers given classified briefings Tuesday evening on the U.S. military conflict in Iran expect President Donald Trump will ask Congress for emergency cash to finance the war. During the closed-door meetings on Capitol Hill, top Trump administration officials said only that they are considering a supplemental military funding request, according to lawmakers who attended the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}