CBO Puts Iran War Cost at $38 Billion Through August 1

The estimate, requested by the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, covers only costs through a fixed cutoff date, meaning the total expenditure is already higher than the published figure.

The Congressional Budget Office placed the cost of U.S. Military operations against Iran at approximately $38 billion in an analysis released Tuesday, September 15, 2026, according to the Washington Examiner. The CBO stated that the estimate carries a cutoff date of August 1, 2026, which means actual expenditures have continued to accumulate beyond the published figure.

The analysis was produced in response to a formal request from Rep. Brandon Boyle (D-PA), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee. Under standard CBO procedure, any member of Congress may request a cost analysis of federal programs or ongoing operations. The ranking member designation gives Boyle procedural standing to make such requests on behalf of the minority.

The $38 billion figure includes the cost of replacing expended munitions, according to the Washington Examiner report. The full breakdown of other cost categories within the estimate, including personnel, fuel, logistics, and equipment maintenance, was not fully detailed in available reporting as of publication. The complete CBO document, which would itemize those categories, has not been reproduced in full in publicly available sources reviewed for this story.

For context, the Congressional Research Service has historically tracked the per-year cost of major U.S. Military engagements. The cost of operations in Afghanistan from fiscal year 2001 through fiscal year 2021 totaled approximately $825 billion in direct war appropriations, according to CRS reports published during that period. That figure averaged roughly $39 billion per year over 21 years. The Iran figure, at $38 billion, represents costs accumulated over a shorter period, though the precise start date of the conflict used as the baseline for the CBO calculation was not specified in reporting reviewed for this story.

The House Budget Committee is the primary congressional panel responsible for setting overall federal spending levels and evaluating the fiscal impact of executive branch activities, including military operations. The committee's ranking member holds the position of leading the minority party's oversight function. Boyle was elected to represent Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional District and has served on the Budget Committee during multiple sessions of Congress.

The White House has not publicly responded to the CBO estimate as of publication time. The Department of Defense, which tracks operational costs separately through its own Comptroller reports, has not released a competing figure in sources reviewed for this story. The Office of Management and Budget, which would be responsible for incorporating war costs into broader federal budget projections, has also not issued a public statement on the CBO number.

CBO estimates are considered authoritative baselines for congressional budget discussions because they are produced by a nonpartisan office that reports to Congress rather than to the executive branch. However, CBO itself notes in standard methodology disclosures that war cost estimates carry inherent uncertainty because operational tempo and mission scope can change faster than analytical cycles allow.

The $38 billion figure does not include long-term costs such as veterans' health care and disability benefits, which the CBO and other research bodies have historically accounted for separately from direct operational spending. A 2023 Brown University Costs of War Project analysis of post-9/11 conflicts found that veterans' care and disability payments represented a substantial share of total long-run war costs, though that study does not cover the Iran operations and is cited here only for methodological context.

Several facts remain unknown from publicly available records as of September 15, 2026. The specific start date used by the CBO as the baseline for its $38 billion estimate has not been confirmed in available reporting. The line-item breakdown of the $38 billion across cost categories has not been reproduced publicly. The current total, which the CBO itself acknowledged exceeds $38 billion due to the August 1 cutoff, is not yet reflected in any published document. The full CBO report, once publicly released on the CBO website at cbo.gov, would answer all three of those questions.