WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) – The U.S. government has “plenty of money” to fund the war against Iran, but is requesting supplemental funding from Congress to ensure the military is well supplied in the future, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday.
Bessent, speaking on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” program, also ruled out pushing for any tax increases to fund the war.
The U.S. military’s request for $200 billion in additional funding for the Iran war faces stiff opposition in Congress, with Democrats and even some Republicans questioning the need after large defense appropriations last year.
Bessent defended the request without confirming the amount.
President Donald Trump has not yet sent a request for the Senate and House of Representatives to approve the sum and his administration has made clear that the number could change.
“We have plenty of money to fund this war,” Bessent said. “This is supplemental. President Trump has built up the military, as he did in his first term, as he is now doing in his second term, and he wants to make sure that the military is well supplied going forward.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said last week that the extra money was needed “to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future.”
He dismissed a question about possible tax increases as “ridiculous” and said that was “not at all” under consideration.
Early indications suggest that the war will be the most expensive for the U.S. since the long conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Administration officials told lawmakers that the first six days of the Iran war had cost more than $11 billion.
The Republican-led Congress has already approved record funding for the military since Trump began his second term in January 2025. Last month, he signed into law the Fiscal 2026 Defense Appropriations Act with about $840 billion in funding.
And last summer, over opposition from Democrats, the Republican-led Congress passed a sweeping tax cut and spending bill that included $156 billion for defense.
Bessent also defended the Trump administration’s moves in recent days to lift sanctions on Iranian and Russian oil. Doing so, he argued, would allow other countries besides China — including Japan and South Korea — to purchase the oil, while preventing oil prices from spiking to $150 per barrel and reducing the overall revenues Iran and Russia would receive.
He said a Treasury analysis showed that the maximum extra amount of oil revenue Russia could get would be $2 billion.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Nicole Jao; Editing by Sergio Non and Mark Porter)
