
Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27)
US federal budget year Oct 2026-Sep 2027; the Iran war's first full appropriations cycle.
Last refreshed: 30 April 2026
Can Congress fund a war that the White House has never formally declared?
Timeline for Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27)
Mentioned in: Hegseth signs as Secretary of War
Iran Conflict 2026What is in the US defence budget for 2027?
When does the US fiscal year 2027 start?
How much has the US spent on the Iran war?
Background
The US federal government's Fiscal Year 2027 runs from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027. The FY27 budget cycle is the first in which the Iran war appears as a named operational cost in formal congressional submissions. Pete Hegseth's FY27 Posture Statement to the House Armed Services Committee on 29 April 2026 disclosed a $1.5 trillion defence request, 40% above FY26 and the largest in US history in nominal terms. The war cost of $25 billion (mostly munitions) appeared publicly for the first time in this document.
The FY27 request is structurally significant because it forces Congress to formally authorise or deny funding for a war that has no signed executive authorisation, no AUMF, and no White House-signed proclamation after 62 days of combat operations. The HASC Posture Statement filing is a standard annual event; what is atypical in FY27 is that it contains the first disclosed cost figure for an ongoing war that the President has not formally invoked his war powers to authorise.
FY27 also covers the General License V wind-down period expiring 24 May 2026, after which OFAC enforcement of Iran sanctions against entities like Hengli Petrochemical is meant to tighten. Congressional appropriators must balance the war's disclosed munitions burn rate against the Pacific Command stockpile depletion and the 18-30 month restock gap under surge production.