NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The Trump administration is prepping a long-awaited, multibillion-dollar request to resupply munitions drained during the Iran war as Congress wrestles with another eye-popping funding request from the Pentagon.
The Pentagon is expected to request roughly $80 billion in supplemental funding to cover the cost of the war in Iran, a source familiar confirmed to Fox News Digital. That figure is double what War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Pentagon Comptroller Jay Hurst testified before lawmakers earlier this year.
Lawmakers have been waiting since the war began for a request from the administration with little insight on what the actual price tag would be.
TRUMP’S PUSH FOR $350 BILLION ‘ARSENAL OF FREEDOM’ HITS GOP SKEPTICISM
Whether the request can pass muster in the upper chamber remains to be seen, especially with the backlash among several Democrats and Republicans over President Donald Trump’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) that has temporarily paused the war.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., contended, “We need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to replenish, resupply a lot of our munitions that have been depleted, not only just with what’s happening in Iran but prior to that.”
“I think there’s a good interest in doing some things that would help ensure that, from a National Security standpoint, we’re prepared to deter and defeat any threat that comes up,” Thune said. “And so we’ll see if and when it gets here, we’ll work through it. We’ll see where the votes are at some point.”
The expected request comes after Hegseth made the rounds on Capitol Hill last week, pitching senators for more funding for the Pentagon, and after Deputy War Secretary Steve Feinberg spoke with lawmakers pushing for an $80 billion supplemental, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
HEGSETH TESTIFIES AT SENATE AS IRAN WAR’S $25B PRICE TAG AND 60-DAY WAR POWERS DEADLINE LOOM
Hegseth and Hurst recently told Congress that the war had cost $29 billion, but many lawmakers believe that figure underestimates the cost given the number of SM3, Patriot, THAAD missiles and Tomahawks used to bomb Iran.
Trump is set to meet with top executives at defense contractors at the White House on Wednesday, following up on a March 6 meeting where Lockheed Martin, Raytheon parent RTX, BAE Systems, Boeing, Honeywell Aerospace, L3Harris and Northrop Grumman promised to quadruple production on their “exquisite” munitions systems.
On June 16, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to speed up production due to “systemic constraints in the munitions industrial base, including limited production capacity, fragile supply chains, long-lead dependencies, and related production bottlenecks.”
Analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies have warned that inventories of several key weapons systems used during the war could take years to restore to pre-war levels. Their analysis found that Patriot and THAAD missile interceptors, as well as Tomahawk cruise missiles, could require three or more years to fully replenish under current production rates.
Defense industry officials and outside experts have argued that substantially increasing output would require Congress to appropriate additional funding, allowing the Pentagon to place large replenishment orders and provide manufacturers with the long-term demand signals needed to expand production.
“The United States Military has more than enough munitions, ammo, and stockpiles to serve all of President Trump’s strategic goals and beyond, and Operation Epic Fury has exposed what happens when you mess with the United States,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said. “Even still, the president has urged our defense contractors to constantly produce more ‘made-in-America’ weapons, which are the best in the world. Democrats destroyed our military, but President Trump rebuilt it.”
TRUMP UNVEILS $1.5T DEFENSE SURGE, DEEP DOMESTIC CUTS — WHAT’S ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK
The bombing campaign against Iran, known as Operation Epic Fury, began on Feb. 28. A tenuous ceasefire has been in place since April 7, and now senior officials from both countries are negotiating on a longer-term peace deal after signing an MOU last week that established a framework for talks.
Meanwhile, it’s not the only eye-popping request the Pentagon and Trump have asked of lawmakers.
Trump earlier this month demanded that Republicans immediately begin work on a third budget reconciliation package loaded with $350 billion in defense funding tied to his highly sought-after Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act.
The figure, in part, is to make up the difference between his initial $1.5 trillion defense budget request, which lawmakers aren’t anywhere close to in their funding negotiations.
“This is a GENERATIONAL Investment in our Military, even bigger than President Reagan’s! Recon 3.0 is the ONLY path to the full $1.5 TRILLION DOLLAR Military Budget our Warriors need in order to build THE ARSENAL OF FREEDOM,” Trump said on Truth Social.
But the request has already hit early roadblocks among Republicans in the upper chamber, and it comes as few Republicans want to circumvent the typical appropriations process to fund the Pentagon.
Earlier this month during a contentious Senate Appropriations hearing, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., agreed that another reconciliation bill was unlikely to happen, particularly as a dumping ground for billions in additional defense spending.
Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said, “Reconciliation is not the best approach.”
“It would be very difficult to get the reconciliation bill approved,” Collins said.
Read the full article here
