Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on President Trump’s request for $87.6 billion in supplemental funding for the Iran war and a variety of other unrelated priorities his Department of Defense (DOD) is seeking, as well as requests in several other areas.
“President Trump launched a reckless and costly war with Iran—without authorization from Congress or the support of the American people—that he should never have started, and now, instead of doing anything to help families get by, he is asking taxpayers to pick up the tab and give him billions more to wage wars overseas. And he is making this request for more funding as the Pentagon already has a historic annual budget and sits on over $100 billion in unspent funding Republicans provided in their Big Ugly Bill.
“For months, the administration has failed to answer basic questions about its aims and justification for the Iran war and failed to provide the most basic information about its costs. It is clear, however, that this request is not merely meant to pay for the president’s disastrous war, but an attempt to secure tens of billions of additional dollars for unrelated Pentagon priorities that should rightly be considered through the annual appropriations process.
“This president is telling the American people there’s no money for health care, housing, or child care—but there should be endless taxpayer dollars to fund wars they don’t support.
“I will closely review this request in its entirety and ensure we take care of our servicemembers, but I will not rubberstamp tens of billions more for this disastrous war of choice.”
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