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Congressional Daily Record
This section captures a formal floor step rather than a policy debate. It mentions members such as Richard Joseph Durbin.
Official title: MORNING BUSINESS
Issued
June 24, 2026
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want to take a moment to reflect on the costs of war. The heaviest burden is always paid by those who serve. In the President's war of choice against Iran, 13 American servicemembers have lost their lives, their families forever affected.
been staggering. Energy prices and commodity prices worldwide have skyrocketed, worsening global poverty and food insecurity rates. At home, gas prices rose to an average of $4.56 a gallon, the highest we have seen in 4 years. Mortgage rates jumped, and operating expenses surged for American farmers.
Moody's Analytics put the total U.S. cost at $132 billion when factoring in military spending, rising prices, and interest rates. Every dollar spent on war is 1 less dollar to improve healthcare or repair our roads.
Here is another cost associated with the Iran war: $29 billion. That is the estimate that Pentagon officials shared during a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing last month. That figure includes only short-term operational expenses and the costs associated with replenishing some munitions. However, it does not include the heavy cost required to repair or rebuild U.S. military bases and facilities in the Middle East that sustained damage from Iranian retaliatory strikes. And every service Secretary has come to Congress to tell us they are running out of money and will need to delay critical training for troops, defer maintenance on military bases, and pause duty station changes.
apparently only cost $29 billion, they were reportedly putting together a supplemental request for upwards of $80 billion. That is on top of the $1.5 trillion that the President has requested for the national defense budget for fiscal year 2027, at least $350 billion of which the President hopes will come from yet another partisan reconciliation bill.
Can you imagine? $1.5 trillion, with a t, for the national defense budget—a 50-percent increase over current funding levels. Has the Pentagon provided Congress with a detailed accounting of its expenses and needs associated with the cost of the Iran war? No. Do we know what will be in the Pentagon's supplemental request? No. Do we know when we will see a supplemental request? No. Will a reconciliation bill include strict financial guardrails for the Department of Defense? If it is anything like the $150 billion that DOD received from the majority last year, probably not. I, for one, am not interested in giving the President a blank check, especially when he threatens further strikes against Iran one day, then touts a supposed peace deal the next.
Here is one more dollar figure I would like to point out: $300 billion. That is the figure tied to a reconstruction fund that President Trump has apparently promised to Iran under the terms of the preliminary agreement he signed last week. This funding is apparently what is needed to help Iran rebuild its economy after the war—but the details are murky.
Who will provide this funding? Will it be the American taxpayers left holding the bag after the President's failed war? Unclear.
Will there be any constraints on how Iran can use this funding? Can they use it to reconstitute their military? Unclear.
What mechanism will there be for oversight of the fund? Also unclear.
negotiating the JCPOA, promised Iran $300 billion in reconstruction funds? Under the JCPOA, economic relief for Iran was provided through certain sanctions waivers and access to its own previously frozen foreign assets. President Obama faced significant scrutiny from
I recall many distortions about a $1.7 billion payment at the time, including bogus claims that the United States was paying out for prisoner releases when, in reality, we were clearing up a decades-old legal settlement that had nothing to do with the JCPOA. Less than $2 billion seems like pennies relative to the $300 billion promise made by President Trump to the Iranians today.
sanctions waivers, unlocking billions in new revenue for Tehran. And apparently, the U.S. is working with Qatar to free up billions of dollars in frozen assets available for Iran. These financial incentives for an adversary before we have compliance are remarkable.
President to end the war yesterday, and I hope when it comes to the national budget or any supplemental request, we will uphold our power of the purse.
Anything less is an abdication of our duties as Members of Congress.