Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made it clear Friday that he does not support the Trump administration’s massive upcoming request for supplemental funding to help cover the cost of the war in Iraq.
“This week, the administration was floating a funding request of $200 billion to finance this open-ended war,” Schumer said on the floor of the Senate. “No way. That will never happen. It’s a preposterous and dangerous risk. We should never accept giving Donald Trump a blank check to wage war in Iran in perpetuity. This is a war without a plan, without an endgame, without the support of the American people.”
Schumer argued that the enormous sum could be used more productively for any number of other things, including reducing the cost of healthcare, housing and daycare.
“It's an indefensible number,” Schumer said, “one of the most wasteful and unthought-out budget requests I have ever heard in my time in the Senate.”
Republicans mull options: Some Republicans have discussed the possibility of using a reconciliation bill to pass supplemental funding for the Pentagon, reducing if not eliminating the need to win Democratic support, but as Politico reports, the size of the administration’s request may make that option untenable.
“It’s such a contortion to make things fit in reconciliation that there’s probably a preference for regular order,” Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker told Politico.
Still, some Republicans say a reconciliation bill would provide another opportunity to slash billions in federal spending to help pay for the extra spending for the war. “It would be very difficult to pass a very large supplemental without it being paid for,” said Rep. Andy Harris, who leads the House Freedom Caucus. “There are hundreds of billions of dollars we can still save in fraud, waste and abuse in reconciliation.”
If reconciliation doesn’t work out, Republicans will need to find a way to win some Democratic support in the Senate, given the 60-vote requirement to pass a bill. One idea is to include Democratic priorities in the supplemental bill, with money for Ukraine and disaster aid. At the moment, though, Democrats don’t seem interested in providing more money for what many see as a reckless military adventure.
Time for hearings? With some lawmakers calling for hearings into the cost and conduct of the Iraq war, many Republicans are saying they don’t want to force Trump administration officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to testify.
“You don’t want to show that kind of division to your enemy when you’re in the midst of a war,” said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, per The New York Times. “I don’t have a problem with the administration avoiding showing our enemy that they don’t have 100% support of the Congress.”
Democrats, some of whom have questioned the legality of the war, say public hearings are necessary. “They want to circumvent the Constitution,” Sen. Cory Booker said earlier this week. “They want to go around public oversight. They want to avoid the glare, the questions of the American people.”
Not all Republicans are opposed to hearings. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a moderate, said he would like to see them, “the sooner the better.”
“Of course it’s necessary,” Fitzpatrick added. “We should have oversight.”