Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared on the Hill on Tuesday urging the Trump administration's request that Congress approve roughly $70 billion in emergency defense funding to sustain U.S. military capabilities as the war with Iran escalates and officials warned that without it the Pentagon could face "critical shortfalls" disrupting readiness.
Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee in what were their first in-depth public remarks about the war since May; Hegseth told senators the United States is at a "moment where we cannot afford inaction," and Caine said the funding request is coming "while time is still on our side" and that "it is critical that we stay ahead of our adversaries and we must have the funds before we are out of time."
Hegseth told senators the war is now expected to cost Americans $37.5 billion, up from a $29 billion estimate from early May, and the conflict that President Trump initially projected would last four to five weeks is entering its fifth month.
Senators from both parties signaled frustration with the administration's handling of the war; Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said Democrats will not support more funding and called the administration's refusal to explain its actions and its refusal to seek congressional authorization "disrespectful."
Republican lawmakers also pressed Pentagon leaders: Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said lawmakers "need some proper answers and some straight talk" about plans to ensure Iran does not choke traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and Caine described the scenario of Iran imposing tolls on merchant vessels as a "hypothetical." Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) asked whether the administration still claimed it needed no authorization from Congress to continue hostilities, and Hegseth said the department "shares the position with the White House that we have all the necessary authorities at this moment."
President Trump on Tuesday said the United States is not leaving Iran and intends to inflict further aerial damage on targets, specifically a place he called Pickaxe Mountain, and he insisted "We are not leaving right now."
Michel Martin speaks with Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., about the escalating war in the Middle East and Hegseth's testimony in front of a Senate panel on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, a sprawling Pentagon policy bill advanced in the House on a narrow 214-211 procedural vote, clearing the way to consider the $1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act.
With the procedural vote, Republicans agreed to attach their overhaul, the SAVE America Act, to the defense bill when it passes, after Speaker Mike Johnson smoothed over a dispute with holdouts led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.).
Lawmakers will next consider some 320 amendments to the defense bill, including proposals to make permanent the Trump administration's ban on transgender people serving openly in the military and to block funding for gender-affirming medical procedures through the military's Tricare health system.
The amendment process will also include a GOP proposal requiring the Pentagon to report options for a potential cut to the civilian defense workforce of 200,000 employees and a vote from Ukraine aid skeptics to bar Pentagon funding to help arm the Ukrainian military.
Most Democratic amendments aimed at cutting the bill’s top line below $1 trillion and prohibiting funding to continue the war against Iran were rejected by Republicans, and Republicans are set to consider a budget blueprint to jump-start reconciliation to fast-track $95 billion in additional spending, including $60 billion in defense funding to cover the costs of the Iran war.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said the combination of bills shows misplaced priorities and called the war "another one of Donald Trump’s broken promises." House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said the GOP priorities "are not out of whack" and that "the number one role of the federal government is the defense of this nation."