U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced questions and protests Tuesday over the U.S. war with Iran, which he estimated has cost $37.5 billion so far, as Republicans prepare a $95 billion GOP budget package to fund the military, along with other White House priorities.
Hegseth provided the new estimate, up from earlier assessments, during at times fiery testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee. Several times, protesters interrupted Hegseth’s opening remarks, which came days after the Pentagon announced that three more American service members have died in the conflict, bringing the death toll to 17, and that more than 100 have been injured since early July.
Hegseth said the supplemental war funding is an “urgent, necessary” injection of money, and with President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget a generational investment in the military.
“Without these funds, we face critical shortfalls,” Hegseth testified.
But Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the panel, iarned of “another forever war.”
“This war is now spiraling out of control again,” Murray said in her opening remarks.
Trump “has told us over 40 times now that a deal is near, and the war will be over soon,” she said. “But now, he’s asking for $70 billion more — and for us to just trust him it’ll all work out fine.”
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins were also testifying before the panel. The proposed budget package includes $10 billion for farm aid and $10 billion for voting law changes.
Before the hearing, the White House issued a statement urging support of the budget resolution, “without modification—immediately.”
War funds make up the bulk of the GOP budget plan
War funding makes up the bulk of the GOP’s new budget proposal, one last priority package the Republicans hope to launch before lawmakers recess to campaign for the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. The package aims to help farmers struggling under Trump’s tariffs and to pay for voter law changes that are likely to include new ID requirements, none of it paid for with offsets.
Most Americans continue to disapprove of how Trump is handling Iran, according to an AP-NORC poll. Gas prices have spiked as Iran works to control oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. munitions are running low from the onslaught of American missile strikes and Trump has shifted away from his own campaign promise not to draw the U.S. into prolonged military conflicts.
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Nevertheless, Trump has showed no signs of backing off the war, and the Republicans have largely refused to confront his strategy, question his objectives or use Congress’ power of the purse or war powers authority to halt the conflict.
“The commander in chief and the whole Department of War are working very hard to bring this to a resolution,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson at his weekly press conference Tuesday. “There’s a lot of questions about how that will be done.”
Trump, in a social media post at the start of the week, asked all House Republicans to vote for the budget resolution.
Hegseth faces questions over war, testosterone screenings and more
Hegseth appeared before the panel facing a torrent of questions about not only the war, but his own leadership of the department.
Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican chair of the committee, opened the hearing saying it’s “deeply troubling” that the Pentagon has blocked or denied promotions to various officers, particularly women and minorities.
“This is likely to discourage well-qualified women and individuals of color from joining our armed forces, thus depriving us of their talent, dedication and patriotism,” Collins said.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Hegseth has been busy promoting his plan for testosterone screenings for the troops rather than publicly disclosing the latest service member injuries in the war with Iran. Nearly 450 have been injured since the start of the war.
“One of the biggest questions Pete Hegseth has to answer today is why he was out marketing testosterone supplements for our troops last week while withholding casualty numbers in the Iran war from the American people,” Schumer said.
Senators have pressed the defense secretary to release the Pentagon’s report on the deadly attack on an Iran primary school at the start of the war and threatened to withhold his own travel budget unless he complies.
This week, the Senate will consider another war powers resolution, having voted nearly a dozen times to try to halt the conflict. The House has approved a war powers resolution limiting Trump’s ability to wage war, with a few Republicans joining the Democrats to pass the measure, but no resolution has cleared both chambers to be sent to the president’s desk.
Republicans work to pass budget over Democratic objections
The GOP budget proposal is expected to flow through the reconciliation process, which enables the majority to approve the plan on its own, over the objections of Democrats in the minority. It’s the same lengthy process Republicans used to approve Trump’s big tax cuts bill last summer, as well as Homeland Security money earlier this year.
The proposal is headed toward a House vote this week, which would start the process by instructing various committees to begin drafting the legislation. Johnson can afford only a few defectors from his slim majority.
So far one Republican, Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio, has objected to the budget plan, warning it will pile on to deficits because the new funding is not being offset with spending reductions elsewhere. Other conservative Republicans share those concerns.
GOP senators have so far panned the House budget plan, but are waiting to see if Johnson can kickstart the process with this week’s voting.
Talk is cheap.
Boots, on the ground,
yankee’s!
Show us the success you claim. Show us your warriors in battle. Not dropping bombs like, COWARDS.
Iran will show why they are thousands of years old, and how minor the usa will be in history teachings in a thousand years.
” cost $37.5 billion” While Americans are losing health benefits and many of them will lose the SNAP program (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) which is used by around one in eight Americans.
A true Republican policy of “let them eat cake”!
In May 2026, U.S. Rep. Blake Moore of Utah, vice chair of the House Republican Conference, said, “Our Republican priority will always be to be putting government ahead of Americans.”
F*ck America! Someone needs to start a go fund me for iran so we can help them off some yanks
To heck with the farmers and their tariff induced problems…we need an extra hundred billion to wage illegal military operations against other sovereign nations and kidnap leaders of other countries that haven’t attacked the United States…Go America!
Pete the useless defence secretary
About time Congress grew a pair. The billions already spent are a sunk cost but the billions more that the demented orange turd wishes to spend are a total waste. Time to acknowledge that the US is not going to accomplish anything more except oil shortages and higher cost of living.
The million was the new hundred thousand. the billion was the new million. The trillion is the new billion. Is there a gazillion waiting for us?
Funny how orange man said the war was over after the first week and they have no military they have nothing yet Americans can keep believing in their president what a joke
How has it costed so much? Oh, I think I get it – Another round of massive inflationary spending is just around the corner. Everyone’s saving will be worthless and nobody will be able to afford anything, but those hedge finds will keep growing. This was the plan all along, perhaps?
Wiping Iran off the planet is worth far more
Money well spent! Unlike the hundreds of billions sent to ukraine!
Good keep your debt growing
They told Trump to end the war immediately He only had authorization to fight for 60 days. Now Trump wants more money to fight a war he was told to end. – hope they chew his ass off and stick to the law.