Mammoth task to pass emergency funding

Republicans eye a ballooning war package with aid for farmers, wildfires

GOP leaders’ mammoth task to pass emergency funding for the military conflict in Iran is growing.

By Meredith Lee Hill and Jennifer Scholtes

Republicans are debating whether to attach wildfire aid and $15 billion in tariff relief for farmers to a military funding package President Donald Trump is expected to seek for the unfolding conflict in Iran, according to four people granted anonymity to share internal deliberations.

Senior congressional GOP aides caution that no decisions have been made, and House Republican leaders are particularly wary of the package growing too large.

GOP leaders have previously thwarted efforts by farm state Republicans to use unrelated government spending bills to advance billions of dollars in assistance to farmers still reeling from Trump’s tariffs, which the Supreme Court struck down last month.

There’s also anxiety about over-stuffing the already precarious emergency war funding package Trump is expected to submit to Congress in the coming weeks. House GOP leaders are especially sensitive about the final price tag, which in military aid alone could be $50 billion at least.

But some Republicans are quietly discussing a list of items that could draw more Democrats to vote for a supplemental defense funding package, which most would otherwise be inclined to oppose amid broad disapproval of the U.S. strikes.

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who chairs the agriculture funding panel, said in an interview he believes that Republican leaders can build enough support for an emergency military funding package if they include aid for farmers as well as the disaster assistance dollars Democrats have long sought.

“I think we get critical mass for a supplemental, because I think they want funding for the California fires, we want funding for agriculture,” Hoeven said.

Hoeven and Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) have crafted a plan to allocate $15 billion in aid for farmers, on top of the $12 billion the Trump administration is already providing in direct payments to U.S. agriculture producers.

Boozman said Thursday that tying this farm aid into an emergency military funding package is “probably the best thing to do.” Republicans are bracing for another big hit to farmers from the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, with already high production costs expected to be intensified by the conflict.

Republican leaders are preparing for a messy fight over the war and military funding, however, and tacking on a growing list of additional items could end up only exacerbating intraparty battles between war hawks and fiscal conservatives.

House Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.) said in an interview this week he would support an emergency military funding bill that costs tens of billions of dollars for the Middle East conflict alone.