January 28, 2026

Warren Statement on New CBO Estimate that Domestic Military Deployments Cost More Than Half a Billion Dollars

"Our military budget is not a slush fund for the President to carry out his political stunts...Ripping them away from their homes, jobs, and families in pursuit of a cruel immigration agenda is a disrespect to their service"

CBO Estimate (PDF)

Washington, D.C. — Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a new report revealing the Trump administration’s domestic deployments of the National Guard and Marines have cost at least $589 million, more than double what the bicameral investigation led by Senator Warren and Representative Garamendi previously revealed. Their investigation found that the Pentagon had committed at least $258 million for the deployment of troops to Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, and Memphis, along with plans to reassign 600 Judge Advocates (JAGs) as immigration judges.

The CBO’s report includes a breakdown of the cost of troop deployments (an average of $260 per person per day or $95,000 per person per year), along with health care, lodging, food, and transportation costs for those service members. According to the report, continuing deployments to Washington, D.C.; Memphis; New Orleans; and Chicago will cost $93 million per month.

In response to the new report, Senator Warren released the below statement:

“Our military budget is not a slush fund for the President to carry out his political stunts. Our National Guard and Marines are needed to respond to natural disasters and national security threats. Ripping them away from their homes, jobs, and families in pursuit of a cruel immigration agenda is a disrespect to their service.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the Trump administration have displayed gross incompetence by deploying out-of-control ICE and CBP agents in American cities. Our military should have no part in it. We need accountability and this administration must answer for wasting more than half a billion taxpayer dollars.”

CBO’s report is in response to an October 27 request from Senators Merkley, Warren, Wyden, Alsobrooks, Blumenthal, Van Hollen, Duckworth, Padilla, Booker, Durbin, and Kim.

Senator Warren’s investigations have repeatedly revealed the Trump administration’s misuse of the military and the importance of the National Guard being able to respond to natural disasters:

  • In December 2025, Senator Warren and Representative John Garamendi (D-Calif.) released a new report detailing the Trump administration’s diversion of more than $2 billion from the Department of Defense to the Department of Homeland Security for immigration enforcement.
  • In October 2025, Senator Warren released answers from an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s cuts to the military’s climate programs. New data revealed how the National Guard is needed to respond to natural disasters across the country.
  • In October 2025, Senator Warren joined several senators in urging the Department of Defense conduct an investigation into how domestic deployments of active-duty and National Guard troops to Portland, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Memphis would impact military readiness.
  • In September 2025, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Warren pressed General Christopher J. Mahoney, nominee to be Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to address her concerns on the growing costs associated with using the military to perform law enforcement duties.
  • In December 2024, Senators Warren and Blumenthal urged then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to issue a policy directive that prohibits the mobilization of active duty military or federalizing National Guard personnel to be deployed against their fellow Americans unless specifically authorized.

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