Washington — Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said on Sunday that he would “take a look at anything” when asked whether he would oppose additional funding for the war with Iran if the White House asks Congress for more money.
“But this president should have come to the American people and Congress first and said, ‘I’m going to choose to go to war, here’s what I want to try to accomplish,'” Warner said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
With lawmakers set to return from a two-week recess this week, the forthcoming supplemental funding request from the White House could take center stage.
The price tag for the war remains unclear. Military officials told members of Congress that the first week of the war alone cost around $11.3 billion. And the Washington Post reported last week that the White House is expected to request between $80 billion and $100 billion in supplemental funding, scaling back the ask from the $200 billion the Pentagon had appeared to initially seek last month. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not deny the figure at a news conference last month, though he said at the time “that number could move.”
The request could prove contentious in Congress. Democrats have continued to rail against the president for his handling of the war, while some Republicans have said that their support could run out if the war doesn’t end before the 60-day mark — the cap on any unauthorized engagements under the 1973 War Powers Resolution.
Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the administration should have been clear about its goals in the war out of the gate, saying that “those four goals of regime change, uranium, missiles and the Strait of Hormuz, we only got those goals about 10 days into the war.”
“And on any honest assessment, I don’t think we’ve accomplished any of them so far,” Warner added.
Last year, the Defense Department received more than $150 billion in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Congress also approved $839 billion in annual spending for the Pentagon earlier this year. Mr. Trump’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 asks Congress for $1.5 trillion in defense spending, which would be considered separately from a supplemental funding request.
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