House Republicans to write $95bn bill to fund Iran war and aid farmers | House of Representatives
The House of Representatives on Wednesday agreed to begin the process of writing a $95 billion bill to finance the war with Iran and provide new aid to farmers, while embarking on a long-shot push to impose new restrictions on voting nationwide.
The Republican-controlled chamber passed a budget resolution nearly party-line 216-214, paving the way for the creation of a reconciliation bill from the Senate that bypasses the Democratic filibuster and can advance under special rules requiring only a simple majority to pass. Two Republicans — Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky and independent Kevin Kiley of California — joined all Democrats in opposing the measure.
The passage of the resolution comes amid an intensifying conflict with Iran, which defense secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate on Tuesday had cost $37.5 billion so far. The Trump administration last month asked Congress to authorize approximately $88 billion in additional funding; the majority of this (up to $67.1 billion) will be used to cover war costs.
The budget resolution passed by the House largely responds to that call by authorizing the armed services committee to recommend $60 billion in spending for fiscal years through 2036 and proposes an additional $13 billion to the intelligence committee. The amount of $73 billion is expected to go to military operations against Iran.
The agriculture committee has been allocated $12 billion for measures to help farmers reeling from the global effects of the conflict with Iran, as well as spending changes that Trump is expected to propose be used in the tariff regime for major trading partners.
The House executive committee authorized an additional $10 billion that will be used to fund a contingency effort to pass the Save America Act into law. The measure, backed by Donald Trump, would ban voting by mail nationwide and require stricter identification for voters when voting and registering.
But legislation seeking to advance through the Senate under budget reconciliation rules can only deal with spending, revenue and debt limits, making it likely that the Save America Act’s policy changes will disappear when the Chamber takes the measure.
Mike Johnson acknowledged that fact Tuesday when he told reporters that the bill’s goal is to enact the American Rescue Act “as much as possible.”
“Republicans, as always, support our soldiers, our farmers, and election integrity, and we will show that once again this week,” the House Republican speaker said.
The budget bill is the third attempt by Republicans to use the party-line reconciliation procedure to implement their agenda in Trump’s second term. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed last year, was a compromise bill like the measure the GOP approved last month that funded agencies involved in Trump’s mass deportation campaign for the remainder of his term.
Democrats were critical of the budget proposal, with Hakeem Jeffries saying before the vote: “President Trump and Republicans in this House continue to be indifferent to the economic well-being of the American people and actively do things that financially harm ordinary Americans, like this reckless and costly election war.”
“Republican extremists apparently have money for war, but they can’t feed the poor,” the House minority leader added.
Parliament’s approval of the decision came two days before parliament goes on recess until the end of August. However, Senate Republican majority leader John Thune signaled that there was no urgency to adopt the plan.
He said at a news conference Tuesday that he would “keep” the measure if negotiations with Democrats over government funding fail before Sept. 30. If that happens, the Senate could recast it to pass a stopgap funding measure along party lines, Thune said.
“I hope this isn’t necessary,” he said.
Even if that scenario is avoided, the budget resolution could face headwinds at the Senate Republican conference, where some lawmakers are whitewashed for not bringing total defense spending to the $1.5 trillion the Trump administration has requested for fiscal 2027. Others objected to the failure to offset the new spending the bill would authorize, amid the growing U.S. debt burden.
