WASHINGTON — During a notably civil session before the House and Senate appropriators, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth assured lawmakers that the United States maintains “control” over the Strait of Hormuz, amid discussions about the Pentagon’s hefty $1.5 trillion budget proposal.
Hegseth faced a barrage of questions regarding the ongoing conflict in Iran, as well as bipartisan concerns about the Department of War’s perceived lack of transparency with the public on critical aspects of the military engagement.
“The significance of the blockade and the strategic challenge it poses to Iran hasn’t been emphasized enough,” Hegseth remarked to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
He elaborated, “Iranian ports have been effectively immobilized, with over 65 ships either turned away or incapacitated. We have the upper hand in the strait, as nothing enters without our consent.”
However, Democratic lawmakers remained skeptical, pointing out that traffic through this crucial maritime corridor, which previously handled over 20% of the world’s seaborne oil trade, has come to a near standstill.
Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) persistently questioned Hegseth about why the U.S. has not reopened the Strait of Hormuz if it truly controls it, suggesting that the nation might be nearing “a strategic loss.”
“So foolish,” Hegseth erupted. “We have more leverage than we’ve ever had. We’ve had incredible battlefield successes. And you’re talking about a strategic loss.”
Hours earlier, President Trump told radio host Sid Rosenberg that the US doesn’t “have to rush anything” and argued that the blockade is tightening the screws on Iran. Trump was also resolute that the US would get Iran’s “nuclear dust.”
“They’ll either do the right thing, or we’ll finish the job,” he later told reporters.
During the back-to-back hearings, Hegseth refused to confirm or deny reporting that only 30% of Iran’s missile capacity was destroyed in the war, arguing a public setting wasn’t the place to do that. The secretary of war also downplayed concerns about America’s munitions stockpile.
“I take issue with the characterization that munitions are depleted in a public forum. That’s not true,” Hegseth countered to Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) “We have all the munitions needed to execute what we need to execute, and we’re going to ensure that we supercharge that going into the future.”
The testimony came hours before Hegseth was set to jet off to China with Trump for his high-stakes meeting with leader Xi Jinping in the first such summit in Beijing in nearly a decade.
At the top of the agenda for lawmakers was President Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense budget. The Pentagon has divvied that up into two main pieces: a $1.15 trillion discretionary spending baseline paired with a $350 billion reconciliation package of mandatory spending.
The $1.15 trillion baseline is what appropriators would oversee, and the other $350 billion is intended to come on a party-line basis from the Senate budget reconciliation process, where Republicans can bypass a 60-vote filibuster from Democrats.
“I would characterize that as a one-time plus-up for catch-up,” Jules Hurst, the acting Under Secretary of Defense, who serves as the de facto chief financial officer at the Pentagon, told lawmakers. “To fix all of our poor and failing barracks and other facilities of the department, and also some catch-up investments in AI and autonomy.”
“We think we can sustain these investments over [time] with discretionary dollars after this,” he added. “[In our] budget request for ’28, we expect to request … discretionary only … and I believe the top line for that is $1.23 [trillion].”
This approach drew unease from Republicans and Democrats alike. Democrats groused that the plan was aimed at circumventing their input.
Republicans raised concerns about the difficulties of the reconciliation process and that the funding plus-up won’t be long-lasting. Rep. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who chairs the Senate subcommittee, for example, pressed Hegseth about whether some of the Pentagon’s top priorities were put in reconciliation.
“The need for significant defense investments is as urgent and obvious as it is overdue,” McConnell argued. “This is not a $1.5 trillion defense appropriation request. It’s a request for $1.1 trillion in base appropriations.”
“If the department’s top priorities aren’t built into annual appropriations, we’re actually taking a big risk,” he stressed.
The Pentagon has not yet released its $350 billion reconciliation plan.
Despite the pointed questions and, at times, testy exchanges with Democrats, Hegseth’s Tuesday appearance before lawmakers was considerably more tame than his combative ones before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees nearly two weeks ago, where he got into much nastier spats.
“We watched some of the other hearings,” Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), the top Democrat on the House subcommittee, remarked. “This is the way … hearings should be conducted, especially when it’s dealing with national defense, when we ask people to put their lives on the line.”
“I thank everyone for a respectful hearing.”
