Senate Dems urge investigators to check Pentagon's math on Iran war

Senate Democrats are pressing federal budget investigators to examine the gap between the Pentagon's stated cost for the Iran war – $29 billion – and outside estimates that peg the cost up to tens of billions of dollars higher.

In a letter sent May 27, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged the Congressional Budget Office to "take into consideration the significant divergence between the administration’s public estimates" for the Iran war's cost and outside estimates from media outlets and analysts.

"We are concerned that the administration has not been fully truthful or transparent in its public accounting of the war’s costs so far," they wrote. Another 17 Democratic senators signed the letter.

The Congressional Budget Office is a government agency charged with providing nonpartisan analysis and information to lawmakers on the Hill.

Rep. Brendan Boyle, top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, asked the CBO in early March to investigate the cost of the war, which began in late February with a massive bombing campaign by the United States and Israel.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

How much does the Pentagon say the war has cost?

Jules Hurst, the Pentagon's comptroller, told Congress at a budget hearing May 12 that the Iran war has cost taxpayers $29 billion, a $4 billion increase from the $25 billion price tag Hurst had given lawmakers two weeks earlier. That total did not include the cost of damage to U.S. military bases and assets struck by Iran, which the Pentagon had not yet fully tallied, Hurst said.

Independent estimates range from slightly to vastly higher than Hurst's number. Mark Cancian, a senior defense adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told USA TODAY in May that the cost for the period covered by Hurst's first estimate probably was closer to $32 billion to $35 billion. An analysis by the American Enterprise Institute also pegged the cost at up to $35 billion from the start of the war through April 7, when the United States and Iran struck a temporary ceasefire.

A source familiar with congressional estimates told USA TODAY battle damage could add another $15 billion to the total cost. CBS and CNN, citing anonymous sources, reported last month that the total cost of the war was closer to $50 billion.

The military has requested a record $1.5 trillion for its budget next year, and Pentagon officials have said they would submit a supplemental request to Congress for additional funds for the Iran war. Pentagon officials have not said how much more they plan to request, although news reports have put that number at between $80 billion and $100 billion.

The conflict in Iran has not returned to all-out war since the ceasefire began seven weeks ago, even though the U.S. military launched what it called self-defense strikes on southern Iran on May 25 and Israel continues to pummel Lebanon in what it has said is a "deepening" operation against Hezbollah, an ally of Iran. Negotiations between the United States and Iran are ongoing over the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping channel that Iran choked off in retaliation for the war, causing global oil prices to spike.

The United States and Israel first launched a joint attack on Iran on Feb. 28. Thirteen American service members and at least 3,000 Iranians have been killed in the war.