As members of Congress scramble to stake out positions on President Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran — and prepare to vote on whether to formally push back on the president’s war powers — some key lawmakers are reportedly also weighing the need for an emergency defense spending bill.
Republican Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker told reporters Tuesday that lawmakers are considering whether the Pentagon will need more money.
“We’re talking about that, and that will undoubtedly be discussed at the all-members brief this week, hopefully today, and if something is needed, and if they make a case for it, I’ll be receptive to their arguments,” Wicker said, according to Politico.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday that the potential need for additional funding was raised during a “Gang of Eight” briefing by administration officials for top lawmakers.
Some Democratic lawmakers have reportedly also expressed concern about the state of weapons stockpiles, including missile defense systems such as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD).
“There is a potential desperate and disastrous shortage of THAAD and Patriot systems that are necessary to protect our embassies, our bases, our civilians, and that is truly a potential disaster in the making,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said.
Any supplemental funding bill would require bipartisan support to get through the Senate. That, as Aris Folley and Jacob Fulton note at Roll Call, “would give Democrats leverage that could affect the scope of future combat in Iran.”
Democratic leaders have come out against the war, saying that, while they don’t mourn the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the American people don’t want a war of choice pursued with no clear endgame or public debate.
“This is not what the American people want,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday. “They don’t want a war that leads to lost American lives and that costs billions and billions of taxpayer dollars. They don’t want a war that raises the price of gas at the pump.”
Some Democratic senators have already cautioned about the costs of war and have used the issue to hammer Republicans about domestic concerns, including the affordability crisis.
“Trump and Republicans: Sorry, no money for your grandma’s healthcare. Also Trump and Republicans: Let’s spend billions blowing up the Middle East,” Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona wrote in a post on X. “They can always find money for war, just never for you.”
Democrats have also rejected Republican pressure to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, now in its 18th day, because of the war. Democrats continue to push for reforms at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol. They argue that Congress could fund all other DHS agencies, such as the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Tuesday dismissed the idea of funding all of DHS now.
“Donald Trump launches an unauthorized war in the Middle East. He characterizes it as endless. He decides that he wants to spend billions of dollars to bomb Iran, rather than spend taxpayer dollars to lower the grocery bills that are crushing the American people. And then wants to use his unauthorized war as an excuse to continue spending taxpayer dollars to brutalize or kill American citizens by continuing to unleash ICE without restrictions on the American people,” Jeffries told reporters. “The whole thing is insane. Make it make sense, because it does not.”