Congress punts on $200 billion defense funding gap until after midterms

Don’t miss the full story from our staff writers, whose reportage is the basis of this article.

Congress returns to Washington this week facing a stack of unresolved national security fights, but most of the heaviest lifting won’t happen until after the Nov. 3 midterms. The House is cutting its return short — just one week before lawmakers head back to the campaign trail — while the Senate stays in session through early October. Congressional sources say the biggest defense and foreign policy decisions, including the roughly $200 billion military funding gap, will wait for a lame-duck session regardless of which party controls Congress after the elections.

At the center of the fight is President Trump’s push for a $1.5 trillion defense budget. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, called current defense funding levels inadequate but acknowledged the full request will be difficult to pass in this environment. The House already passed a $1.15 trillion version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act in July, which remains stalled in the Senate amid Democratic resistance. Republicans have been trying to add $350 billion more through a reconciliation process now in its third round, nicknamed “reconciliation 3.0” — complicated further by unplanned costs from the six-month-old U.S.-Iran war.

Diaz-Balart said passing that additional $350 billion is looking unlikely, citing multiple factors beyond the war, though money remains the central obstacle. Rep. Morgan Luttrell said the White House, Pentagon and Congress are talking but aren’t aligned on funding, while Rep. Jack Bergman joked that a “reconciliation 4.0” may be needed after the elections.

Military officials warn that major programs could fail without the extra funding. Adm. Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations, said Iran war costs weren’t “baked in” to the budget, forcing the Navy to shift funds from accounts meant for housing and payroll. In June, the administration requested $87.6 billion in supplemental funding, with $67 billion tied to Iran-related “urgent needs,” per a memo from Budget Director Russell Vought. That figure is notably higher than the $37.5 billion cost estimate Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Congress in July testimony — a discrepancy the story doesn’t reconcile.

Politically, the funding fight intersects with Trump’s unmet pledge that the Iran and Russia-Ukraine wars would be resolved by now, along with Defense Secretary Hegseth’s personnel shake-ups and Pentagon equity stakes in defense contractors — all potential lines of attack for Democrats heading into the midterms.

One note before the headlines: there’s a real gap between Hegseth’s $37.5 billion war-cost figure and the $67 billion Iran-tied portion of the supplemental request — worth flagging to an editor since a headline built on either number alone could read as incomplete without the other for contrast.

Read more: Pentagon funding hits snag, as Congress returns amid Iran war and ahead of midterm elections