Congress Never Funded the Iran War. The Pentagon Is Paying Anyway

Congress never approved a dollar specifically for the war with Iran. Yet the Pentagon's inspector general says Operation Epic Fury has cost at least $33.4 billion, paid for out of accounts meant to train and maintain the military.

The $33.4 billion figure, disclosed in the first inspector general report on the operation, covers the period through June 30 and excludes infrastructure repairs and economic fallout. A separate estimate released Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office put the Pentagon's cost at $38.1 billion through Aug. 1, and found the war is running $2 billion to $3 billion a month as it continues. Both figures are below the $67.1 billion in supplemental funding the White House requested for the Department of War, although CBO found only $42.3 billion of that request was directly related to the conflict.

With no dedicated appropriation, the services have paid for the war by dipping into their base budgets, the day-to-day accounts that fund training, maintenance and equipment upkeep, while the Department of War, as the Pentagon is now formally known, waits on a $67.1 billion supplemental request the White House sent Congress on June 24 that includes funding for the conflict and broader defense priorities. To bridge the gap, the department has asked to move money between accounts, a step defense budget analysts say will likely delay weapons modernization.

Part of the request is invisible even to the taxpayers footing it. The June 24 letter set aside $12.1 billion for unspecified classified programs, a line larger than the fuel, drone and readiness requests combined. It is one of just three line items, alongside $21 billion for munitions and $17.3 billion in operational costs, that together total $50.4 billion, or 68% more than the roughly $30 billion the administration's own budget director, Russell Vought, told Congress the conflict had cost as of late June.