The White House wants $87.6 billion from Congress, and it's using American farmers and Ebola response as cover for a Pentagon refill after the Iran war. The vast majority of the money — the administration hasn't itemized the full defense share — goes to reimbursing the military for Operation Epic Fury. Just $11.1 billion, roughly 13 cents of every dollar requested, would go to economic assistance for U.S. farmers. Another $1.4 billion targets the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa, $500 million funds construction projects around Washington, D.C., and $1 billion bankrolls a Penn Station renovation in New York.
This is the oldest trick in the swamp playbook: load up a must-pass spending bill with enough domestic sweeteners that lawmakers can't afford to vote no, then ram through the foreign entanglement money that would never survive a standalone vote. The math is brutal for ordinary Americans. The Pentagon gets the lion's share to pay for a war that multiple members of both parties now want to end, while farmers — who actually feed this country — get a fraction tucked in as political insulation.
OMB Director Russ Vought urged Congress to act "as soon as possible" on the request, which landed the same day Trump berated Republican senators over a war powers resolution aimed at halting further hostilities. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called it asking "taxpayers to clean up his messes, to the tune of $87.6 billion." Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on Senate Appropriations, said the request isn't merely about the war — it's "an attempt to secure tens of billions of additional dollars for unrelated Pentagon priorities."
The Ebola portion tells its own story about how Washington creates crises it then demands money to fix. Reuters reported that $800 million of the $1.4 billion would fund a quarantine center in Kenya for Americans exposed to the virus, plus supplies, contact tracing, and infection control. Another $500 million goes to "global health security" to prevent the virus from reaching U.S. soil. Congressional aides told Reuters the request faces headwinds because the administration has been refusing to spend money Congress already allocated for foreign medical assistance — including cuts to USAID and African public health programs that preceded the outbreak. The WHO says the Congo outbreak, linked to the Bundibugyo strain, has infected over 1,000 people and killed 267 — the fastest-growing Ebola episode on record. A confirmed case has already reached France.
SFGATE framed the request primarily as a war funding bill with add-ons; Reuters narrowed in on the Ebola piece and the prior funding cuts that may have worsened the crisis. Neither outlet spelled out the ratio of defense spending to domestic spending for readers.
The package also carries $500 million for D.C. construction projects and that $1 billion Penn Station line item — conveniently located in the home states of Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Call it what it is: leverage to buy New York votes for a war bill.
The request faces serious obstacles. Lawmakers in both parties have complained they still haven't received a formal briefing on the Iran war nearly four months in. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is meanwhile pushing for up to $1.5 trillion in total defense spending this year — a nearly 50 percent increase. The question for Congress isn't whether farmers need help or Ebola needs containing. It's whether those priorities should be held hostage to yet another open-ended Pentagon commitment overseas.
