US Media: Pentagon Seeks $200 Billion Funding for War with Iran

On March 19, senior U.S. officials told The Washington Post the Pentagon has asked the White House to greenlight a congressional budget request exceeding $200 billion to fund a war with Iran. The request’s scale far outstrips the cost of the administration’s current large-scale airstrike operations and is all but certain to face pushback from lawmakers opposed to the conflict. It aims to urgently ramp up production of key weapons, which have been significantly depleted over the past three weeks. White House officials say the Pentagon’s ask is unlikely to clear Congress. Sources familiar with the matter note the Pentagon has floated several funding proposals of varying sizes over the past two weeks. Deputy Defense Secretary Steven Feinberg is leading the effort, with his team developing a series of funding proposals to quickly address the Pentagon’s ammunition shortage. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton—a Republican senator—is also pushing to include additional funding for the intelligence community in the final proposal.