The White House has formally requested lawmakers to approve $87.6 billion (£66.5 billion) in funding, primarily to cover “urgent needs” associated with the United States’ military operations in Iran.
The formal request was submitted on Wednesday by the White House Office of Management and Budget in a letter addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson.
This proposal arrives only a day after the Republican-controlled Senate passed a landmark resolution, the first of its kind to clear Congress, instructing the president to end the military action.
Most of the funding requests, approximately $67 billion, is designated for Defence Department to cover various military requirements.
This includes $21 billion for munitions, $17.3 billion for operational costs, and $12.1 billion for classified programmes, reports BBC.
According to White House, the bulk of these funds will address urgent needs related to Operation Epic Fury (OEF), the military campaign in Iran. While Washington and Tehran are currently observing a ceasefire, the budget office noted that the Pentagon must “rebuild stocks” following its previous military strikes.
The request also encompasses several non-military measures, including 1.4 billion to address the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa. Approximately $300 million is sought to bolster security at US embassies and diplomatic outposts in the Middle East and South Asia, following attacks on some facilities earlier in the conflict.
The proposal is expected to face a significant “uphill battle” in Congress, as the Iran conflict remains unpopular with voters and the midterm elections approach this November. President Donald Trump has dismissed the Senate’s war powers resolution as “poorly timed and meaningless”.
During a tense, closed-door luncheon on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Trump reportedly engaged in a shouting match with Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, one of four Republicans who voted with Democrats to restrict the president’s powers.
Cassidy told journalists that the conflict, which was supposed to last four weeks, has now continued for four months without achieving its original objectives.
Trump further expressed his frustration during a meeting with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, labelling the dissenting Republican senators as “losers” and suggesting that those supporting the resolution “want to lose the war because they’re stupid”.
The political friction also led the president to abruptly cancel a signing ceremony for a landmark bipartisan bill intended to lower housing costs.
While the Pentagon’s chief financial officer Jules Hurst previously estimated the war’s cost at $29 billion, defence analysts and lawmakers have argued that this figure fails to reflect the full scale of the conflict’s financial damage.
