The Center Square reports that Congress has never passed a specific appropriation for the war with Iran. Yet the Pentagon’s inspector general says Operation Epic Fury has already cost at least $33.4 billion, money drawn from accounts meant for training, maintenance and equipment upkeep.

Cost estimates and funding gaps

The $33.4 billion figure covers expenses through June 30 and excludes infrastructure repairs and economic fallout. A separate estimate from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released Tuesday puts the Pentagon’s cost at $38.1 billion through Aug. 1, noting the war is running $2 billion to $3 billion a month as it continues.

Both estimates fall short of the $67.1 billion supplemental funding request the White House sent to Congress on June 24. The CBO found that only $42.3 billion of that request is directly related to the conflict.

How the Department of War is covering the bill

Without a dedicated appropriation, the services have been paying for the war by dipping into their base budgets – the day‑to‑day accounts that fund training, maintenance and equipment upkeep. To bridge the gap, the Department of War (the Pentagon’s new formal name) has asked to move money between accounts, a step defense‑budget analysts say could delay weapons modernization.

Part of the supplemental request is hidden from public view. The June 24 letter set aside $12.1 billion for unspecified classified programs, a line larger than the combined fuel, drone and readiness requests. The request also includes $21 billion for munitions and $17.3 billion for operational costs, together totaling $50.4 billion – 68 % more than the roughly $30 billion the administration’s budget director, Russell Vought, told Congress the conflict had cost as of late June.

Potential trade‑offs

Elaine McCusker, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former acting Pentagon comptroller, warned that while the department waits for supplemental relief, it is covering costs through reprogramming requests that will likely cause modernization delays. She said activities funded by operations and maintenance funds – including facilities maintenance, depot repairs and training – may be deferred or delayed.

A 72‑day stopgap spending measure set to take effect Oct. 1, at levels below current budgets, could “make the entire situation worse, and ultimately more expensive,” McCusker told The Center Square.

Official response

A senior War Department official disputed the inspector general’s findings, claiming the office “did not have access to all relevant information” and calling any suggestion that U.S. munitions are depleted “completely false.” However, the inspector general reported that the operation “resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial‑base bottlenecks for munitions resupply,” quoting the department’s acquisition and sustainment office.

Rising cost estimates

Cost estimates have risen throughout the fiscal year: $25 billion in April, $29 billion in May, and $37.5 billion when Secretary of War Pete Hegseth testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 21. AEI analysts tracking incremental military costs since December estimate U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Caribbean have cost $67.7 billion this fiscal year.

Congressional debate

Democrats on the Appropriations Committee argue the department does not need additional money. Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Sen. Patty Murray said the department “sits on over $100 billion in unspent funding” from an earlier reconciliation bill. Senators Dick Durbin, Jeanne Shaheen and Chris Coons pressed Hegseth on why he was seeking another $67 billion while roughly $75 billion from the earlier package remained unobligated.

Hegseth responded that the money is already committed to rebuilding priorities the previous administration neglected, including the Golden Dome missile‑defense program and hypersonics, and that redirecting it would be “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” He said 95 % of those reconciliation funds would be allocated by the end of September.

Congress has not yet approved the $67.1 billion request. A stopgap measure signed Sept. 2 funds the government through Dec. 11 at roughly current levels, leaving the Pentagon to keep covering the war from existing accounts. As of late August, the inspector general counted at least 18 U.S. service members dead, and cost estimates continue to climb.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.