Pentagon faces Iran war funding squeeze 

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America’s military has growing budget problems because of the Iran war, and Congress is unlikely to help the situation anytime soon. 

Those were two key takeaways from Capitol Hill last week, as President Trump’s trip to China provided some distraction but little help in finding a way out of his quandary in the Strait of Hormuz. 

Naval Operations Chief Adm. Daryl Caudle said Thursday that without supplemental funding for the U.S. war in Iran, he will have to implement cuts in training, routine operations and personnel by July. 

“The [fiscal 2026] budget didn’t bake in [Operation] Epic Fury,” Caudle said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing. “You see a large Navy force in the Middle East. So we’re burning bright … but it does come at cost, and it comes at operational costs.” 

However, the administration has yet to send an Iran war funding request to Congress, and whenever that happens, it faces a tough path ahead, as The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reported. 

“I think the supplemental is in big trouble. I think that’s one of the reasons we haven’t seen a formal supplemental request. I think that’s going to be a very heavy lift,” one Republican senator told Bolton. 

Growing GOP dissatisfaction with the war is also showing up in war powers votes, with Democrats on the verge of winning over enough Republicans to check Trump’s ongoing operations in the Middle East, as The Hill’s Ellen Mitchell reports. 

Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who focuses on defense strategy and budgeting, said an Iran funding request would likely amplify that dissent. 

“I think that’s a real risk for the administration. Even though the costs are real, and even though it’s costs that have already been incurred … it will nevertheless be portrayed as a vote for or against the war,” Harrison told The Hill.  

There’s also uncertainty within the administration over what the rest of the war will look like, and how long it will last, which further complicates a funding request.  

“We’re in this period, kind of this low period right now, where maybe there’s a ceasefire, maybe there’s negotiations, maybe there’s not, but you know, at any moment this could flare back up into high-intensity conflict,” Harrison said. 

“So I think that’s part of the calculation as well. You only get one bite at the apple, or you don’t want to be coming back asking for a second Iran supplemental later in the year, because now you’ve doubled your political cost.” 

Both Harrison and Michael O’Hanlon, a defense expert at the Brookings Institution, said the military could likely find stopgap solutions to short-term funding problems, thanks in part to some $150 billion in Pentagon funding included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed last year. 

Republicans could also try to move additional Iran war funding through reconciliation, a process that would avoid the Democratic veto threat in the Senate. The Pentagon has already requested $350 billion in a reconciliation package as part of its 2027 budget request. 

However, key GOP appropriators are already skeptical of that maneuver, and adding billions for the Iran war would only make it a heavier lift for House and Senate leaders.  

Much of that funding is aimed at refilling U.S. stockpiles depleting during the first month of Operation Epic Fury. 

“One thing that hasn’t been looked at as much is the op tempo of naval forces and air forces has been significant,” said Jerry McGinn, the director of the Center for the Industrial Base at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

He noted that the Navy and Air Force have also been heavily involved in operations around Venezuela earlier this year and Iran last summer. 

While the USS Gerald R. Ford returned home to Virginia on Saturday after an 11-month deployment — the longest since the Vietnam War — there’s no sign that the strain on the Navy will let up anytime soon. 

Two other aircraft carriers remain deployed to the Middle East, with the U.S. maintaining its blockade on the Strait of Hormuz and Washington and Tehran deadlocked in negotiations to end the war. 

▪ The Hill: GOP senators battle over third reconciliation bill. 

▪ The Hill: Trump warns Iran that ‘clock is ticking.’ 

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY   

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