White House seeks extra funds for Iran war as part of $87.6bn request

The White House has requested Congress approve $87.6bn in new funding, much of which would go towards the costs of Donald Trump’s war with Iran, but a top Democrat has signaled the party will not support paying for an unpopular conflict that lawmakers never authorized.The Trump administration’s supplemental funding request released on Wednesday comes amid a logjam in US Congress sparked by the president’s demand that the Senate pass a measure to impose sweeping new restrictions on voting nationwide.The standoff intensified this week, when Trump refused to sign a major housing bill approved with bipartisan majorities until the voting bill advances, after previously linking its passage to renewal of a key foreign surveillance law.In a letter outlining the Iran war funding request, the White House office of management and budget director, Russell Vought, wrote that $67.1bn of the funds would be used to cover costs related to the conflict with Iran, and would include $21bn for munitions procurement and the defense industrial base.The request also contains $1.4bn to respond to the outbreak of Ebola in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and $11.1bn for US farmers, who have been struggling with economic shocks related to the Trump administration’s tariff regime, as well as prices for fertilizer and diesel driven higher by the conflict with Iran.The White House also wants Congress to codify in the proposal year-round sales of E15, a gasoline blend with higher ethanol content that can be cheaper but also cause more air pollution in warmer months.The latest funding request comes on top of Trump’s proposed $1.5tn budget for the Pentagon, its largest in decades. While appropriators in the Senate and House of Representatives have advanced legislation to authorize $1.15tn of those funds, the White House’s request that the remaining $350bn be approved in a party-line measure has been met with skepticism from senior Republicans.Democratic lawmakers have also scorned the idea of paying for the war with Iran, which Trump initiated in February alongside Israel without first requesting Congress’s permission. Surveys have shown the conflict is unpopular with the public, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll released this week finding that just a quarter of Americans believe the United States has emerged stronger from the conflict.Earlier this week, the Senate passed a largely symbolic measure that would prevent the president from restarting hostilities, which his administration is seeking to resolve through negotiations with Tehran.Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations committee, blasted the supplemental funding request, saying that the Pentagon currently has $100bn in unspent funds.“I will closely review this request in its entirety and ensure we take care of our servicemembers, but I will not rubber stamp tens of billions more for this disastrous war of choice,” Murray said in a statement.The battle over the voting measure, known as the Save America Act, may also delay consideration of the White House funding proposal. Though the voting bill does not have the votes to pass the Senate, the Republican congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna on Thursday said she would in effect shut down the floor of the House by opposing procedural motions until the upper chamber takes action on Save America.On Thursday, the House Republican leadership cancelled votes planned for Friday, while the Senate has adjourned until 13 July.