Lawmakers on Capitol Hill could soon add another priority to their growing agenda as Republicans work to navigate a partial government shutdown and other deadlines looming in the next several weeks — weighing whether to provide additional cash to fund President Donald Trump’s operation in Iran.
Early chatter is beginning in the House of Representatives over a potential supplemental funding bill to aid the U.S. and Israel’s joint strikes on Iran, depending on how long the operation lasts and how much both countries bear down on the Islamic Republic.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., told reporters last week that he would ‘expect’ a supplemental funding request from the Department of War ‘well before the end of the year.’
‘We’ve been told the Pentagon is looking at it, but we haven’t been given anything about an amount or time frame yet,’ Cole said.
Asked by Fox News Digital about what kind of price tag he would expect, Cole speculated, ‘Maintaining two carrier battle groups in action is not a cheap thing, not to mention all the other resources that are being expended. So I would expect it to be very robust.’
‘It’s been a pretty frequent part of conversation,’ House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital of an Iran funding bill.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., also told Fox News Digital he would ‘absolutely’ back a defense supplemental funding bill.
A senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, said they envisioned a modest increase in funding for Iran but said there were multiple variables at work that made a total cost unknowable at this point.
‘It depends on how long it lasts,’ they said. ‘A lot of this depends on, do our Gulf Coast partners participate? If they do, that helps. It depends on how long Israel goes. But we’ll definitely need some more munitions, so I’d say a small supplemental is probably important to just restock.’
But it will likely be difficult to sell the need for more Iran funding to House Democrats, many of whom have argued Trump’s involvement has amounted to an illegal war.
‘We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it in terms of if the administration makes a request to Congress to consider additional funding,’ House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’ on Sunday. ‘But at this particular point in time, the administration has failed to make its case as to the rationale or justification for this war of choice in the Middle East.’
And with the House GOP’s razor-thin majority, which is expected to grow to two votes after a special election in Georgia this week, Republican leaders could have a tough time appeasing fiscal hawks in their own party.
‘We need to know what the terms of the conflict are going to be, how long — a lot of us are very happy with going after and taking out Iran’s capabilities and taking out a lot of their bad guys, but what’s the endgame?’ Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said to Fox News Digital.
‘Number two, is it paid for? So, you know, general support for what we’re doing to go after the bad guys, but we’ve got to know what the limits are and how much it’s gonna cost, and if it’s paid for.’
Even if it passes the House, such legislation would need 60 votes to advance in the Senate, meaning at least several Democrats would need to be on board.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of War for additional comment.