White House budget director: ‘We’re working’ on funding request for Iran conflict

White House Budget Director Russ Vought told senators on Thursday that the White House is still working on a request to send Congress to fund the military conflict with Iran, which is estimated to cost more than $10 billion per week.

Asked by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) about when the White House will submit its defense supplemental spending request to lawmakers, Vought answered: “Not yet.”

“We are working on it. We do want to continue to assess when it will be needed by and how long the operations will last,” Vought answered.

“We have it, we’re reviewing it. We’re well aware and will make sure we send it up,” he added.

Graham said he wants the administration to send the request to Congress “sooner rather than later.”

Vought declined to say how much the administration has spent so far on the military conflict or how much it will request from Congress.

Asked by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) if the administration has already spent $50 billion on the conflict as some media reports have indicated, Vought said: “I wouldn’t to make a characterization of that at this point.”

That answer didn’t sit well with the senior Democrat, who told Vought, “I would expect you to have pretty good numbers on that so I’m a little disappointed in that answer.”

Vought also declined to confirm reports that the administration is planning to submit a request for $80 billion to $100 billion to fund military operations against Iran.

“If you were to be on the inside of the Department of War, these costs would fluctuate given the day. So I think it’s hard to give you an average cost,” Vought said.  

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