US: House GOP Considers Attaching Military Aid To Second Reconcilliation Bill

Politico reports that House Republican leaders have discussed attaching military aid to a second party-line reconciliation bill on day three of the House Republican retreat in Doral, Florida. Reports from the first two days suggest senior House Republicans are sceptical the GOP can pass another ‘megabill’ through the razor-thin and politically fractured majority in the House. 

• The report notes, “Speaker Mike Johnson [R-LA] and his team are weighing a variety of options, including the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process, to pass some or all of the tens of billions of dollars in funding they expect the Pentagon to request in the coming days to assist in the US conflict with Iran.”
• Republicans are also under pressure from US farmers to consider a bailout to offset spiking fuel and fertiliser prices due to the Iran war. Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman (R-AK) said he believed farm aid was needed even before the conflict and that rising input costs have only intensified the pressure. “If you’re growing something in the ground right now, you’re losing money,” he said, per Bloomberg.
• The Pentagon estimates that the first two days of the war cost USD$5.6 billion in munitions alone. The total cost will rise, increasing the likelihood that the White House sends Congress a supplemental funding request totalling tens of billions of dollars.
• The Washington Post notes that the cost “underscores the deepening alarm among some on Capitol Hill over the speed at which US forces have eaten into the scarce supply of America’s most advanced weaponry.”