U.S. Air Force airmen prepare to load cargo onto a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft at a base in the Middle East during Operation Epic Fury, April 18, 2026. (Travis Knauss/U.S. Air Force)
Senate Democrats are asking the Congressional Budget Office to account for “significant divergence” between the Pentagon’s cost estimate for the Iran war and independent reports as the nonpartisan agency calculates the conflict’s price tag.
The lawmakers said they are concerned the Trump administration has not been “fully truthful or transparent” in its public accounting of the war’s expenses.
The Pentagon’s acting comptroller told Congress in late April that the conflict, which began on Feb. 28, had cost $25 billion and two weeks later bumped up that total to $29 billion. The figure does not include repairs to damaged U.S. military installations in the Middle East.
Democrats, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, and Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, said independent analyses point to real costs closer to $40 to $50 billion and higher.
President Donald Trump’s former Pentagon deputy comptroller, Elaine McCusker, estimated for the conservative American Enterprise Institute that the conflict cost between $25 billion and $35 billion in the six weeks before a ceasefire took effect.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a centrist think tank, estimated that the war cost $16.5 billion in the first 12 days.
The discrepancies between the Pentagon’s stated costs and those of experts are especially concerning, Democrats said, in light of the administration’s intentions to seek a supplemental funding request for the war that could reportedly top $200 billion.
“It is essential that Congress and the American public receive accurate, comprehensive estimates of the costs of the war in Iran,” they wrote in a letter this week to the budget office’s director, Phillip Swagel.
Democrats said the true cost of the conflict could rise further if indirect costs such as higher energy prices and long-term care for veterans are taken into account.
“Your timely and comprehensive estimate of the immediate and long-term budgetary consequences will help ensure that the Iran war remains subject to rigorous and appropriate legislative oversight,” they wrote to Swagel.
