Congress Must Reject Trump’s Emergency Funding Request for His Illegal War
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following a classified briefing with the Trump administration on the war on Iran, lawmakers anticipate the president will request emergency funding to finance the war, with Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg reportedly requesting $50 billion. This request comes as Trump invites military industry executives to the White House to discuss a speedy replenishment of U.S. weapons as Trump’s war gets out of hand.
In response, Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman issued the following statement:
“A vote for a military supplemental appropriation is a vote to support, continue and enable Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional war on Iran.
“Anyone who votes for a War Powers Resolution to end the war must oppose the military supplemental. Supporting a supplemental appropriation would effectively cancel the vote on a War Powers Resolution – if you vote to oppose the illegal war but then vote to fund it, then you signal that your vote against the war was performative and not serious.
“Congress should be very clear: No extra funding for Donald Trump’s war chest.
“The Pentagon is already feasting on a trillion-dollar budget, replete with waste and fraud, at a time when Congress has voted under the tax and budget reconciliation bill to strip food assistance from four million Americans and health care coverage from more than 15 million Americans.
“The $50 billion proposed for a military supplemental bill is treated as pocket change in the Pentagon context, but that same money could have dramatic effects in the non-military world. $50 billion would be enough to restore food assistance to those four million Americans, establish universal pre-K education, and pay for the annual construction of more than 100,000 units of housing.
And no one should have illusions that the $50 billion request will be a one-time thing. A first “replenishment” will pave the way to spend more on the war and seek subsequent budget bumps. And the $50 billion military supplemental is just a prelude to a planned request to skyrocket the Pentagon budget by $500 billion annually.
“Any extra funding for Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon will fuel the administration’s illegal and unconstitutional wars abroad and its illegal and dangerous efforts to deploy National Guard and potentially even regular military troops at home.
“Congress should not make an extra dime available to a Pentagon being used as a plaything by an authoritarian administration. Not through a supplemental appropriations bill, not through a budget reconciliation bill, not through increasing the Pentagon’s base budget through the normal appropriations process.”