WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to face sharp questioning from senators Tuesday over the expanding U.S. war with Iran, as Republicans move to advance a $95 billion budget package aimed at funding the military while also delivering aid to farmers and pursuing election law changes sought by the White House.
Hegseth will appear before the Senate Appropriations Committee alongside Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. Their testimony comes just days after the military reported that three additional U.S. service members had been killed in the conflict, raising the American death toll to 17, with more than 100 others wounded since early July.
Sen. Patty Murray, the committee’s top Democrat, is sounding alarms that the confrontation with Iran “could be another forever war.”
President Donald Trump “has told us over 40 times now that a deal is near, and the war will be over soon,” Murray is expected to say, according to prepared remarks. “But now, he’s asking for $70 billion more — and for us to just trust him it’ll all work out fine.”
War funds make up the bulk of the GOP budget plan
The proposed war funding accounts for most of the GOP’s latest budget plan, a final priority package Republicans hope to move before lawmakers leave Washington to campaign ahead of the midterm elections that will decide control of Congress. The measure also includes $10 billion in assistance for farmers hurt by Trump’s tariffs and another $10 billion for changes to voting laws, likely including new voter ID requirements. None of the spending is offset with cuts or new revenue.
Public support remains a challenge for the administration. Most Americans continue to disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran, according to an AP-NORC poll. At the same time, gas prices have climbed as Iran seeks to exert control over oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. munitions stockpiles are being strained by repeated American missile strikes, and Trump has moved away from his campaign pledge to keep the United States out of prolonged military conflicts.
Even so, Trump has given no indication that he plans to pull back from the war. Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, have largely avoided challenging his strategy, pressing him on his end goals or using Congress’ spending and war powers authorities to force a halt to the fighting.
“The commander in chief and the whole Department of War are working very hard to bring this to a resolution,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “There’s a lot of questions about how that will be done.”
Hegseth faces questions over war, testosterone screenings and more
Hegseth appears before the panel facing a torrent of questions about not only the war, but his own leadership of the department.
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 funds 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 onto 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.
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