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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators Tuesday that the United States has spent $37.5 billion on the war against Iran, a sharp increase from a previous estimate of nearly $29 billion in mid-May, as he defended a request for roughly $70 billion in supplemental Pentagon funding before a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing marked by bipartisan friction and pointed questions about the conflict's direction and duration.
Democrats repeatedly challenged Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine over the funding request, noting that the Pentagon had already received approximately $150 billion in additional money through the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, the Republicans' sweeping tax-and-spending legislation.
Hegseth and Caine responded that much of that funding had been earmarked for programs unrelated to the war.
Hegseth, who is simultaneously seeking a $1.5 trillion defense budget, framed the supplemental request as being about "peace through strength," saying the money would serve two purposes: sustaining military readiness to meet current demands and accelerating critical capabilities to replace and augment those already expended.
His opening remarks, however, never directly addressed the war in Iran.
Instead, he argued the Pentagon was at a "moment where we cannot afford inaction if we don't make critical investments right now in tech, in compute, in A.I., in autonomy, in space." He made it roughly 30 seconds into those remarks before anti-war protesters interrupted the hearing and were removed from the room.
Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, grew visibly frustrated while questioning Hegseth and Caine about what Iran might do if the United States ceased combat operations.
When Kennedy asked whether American forces could destroy reported nuclear facilities at an underground complex known as Pickaxe Mountain, Hegseth declined to give a direct answer, saying "a lot of our capabilities are classified," while adding that "if anybody in the world can reach anything on this, on God's green earth, it's the United States military."
The exchange touched on a persistent and unresolved challenge of the conflict.
During Operation Midnight Hammer in 2025, B-2 stealth bombers deployed the most capable conventional bunker-penetrating munitions in the U.S. arsenal against underground nuclear sites, but those strikes are believed not to have destroyed their targets.
The only weapon known to offer greater capability against deeply buried facilities is a nuclear device.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, pressed Hegseth on whether the administration believed it needed congressional authorization to continue hostilities.
Hegseth said the administration believed it had the necessary authority. When Murkowski asked whether passing an emergency supplemental funding bill would serve as a substitute for explicit war authorization, Hegseth did not directly answer.
Gen. Caine paused the hearing to acknowledge three American soldiers killed in the Middle East over the previous weekend, Tyler Feehan, 25; Michael Swinton, 30; and Isabella Gonzales, 19.
"I ask all of us here in the Senate and across the American people to never forget our fallen and their families who continue to show us what courage, tenacity, grit, and commitment to the nation looks like," Caine said.
Hegseth did not mention the deaths in his own remarks.
Hegseth drew a pointed comparison between the Iran conflict and Russia's war in Ukraine, suggesting critics were being impatient. "I sit in front of a committee that wants to talk about winning a war that's been going on for four years and talks about strategic defeat of a conflict that's been going on for four months to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb," he said.
The war against Iran, however, has already lasted considerably longer than Hegseth himself had earlier predicted, and neither conflict appears close to resolution through military victory or diplomatic compromise.
Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, asked Caine whether he anticipated the Iran war escalating to ground combat.
Caine said it would be "unhelpful for me to opine on hypotheticals," adding that the military develops extensive options and assesses associated risks.
Reed also pushed back on Hegseth's repeated attacks on the Biden administration, calling them "a very, very obvious excuse" for what Reed described as "probably gross negligence."
Hegseth had leveled some of his sharpest criticism at his predecessor, former Army Gen.
Lloyd Austin, saying "the amount of neglect, the amount of stale thinking and bureaucracy was staggering when we took over." Such direct, personal attacks by a sitting defense secretary on a predecessor are unusual by historical standards.
The hearing also featured testimony from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on an $11 billion funding request for American farmers included in the supplemental package, a provision widely seen as an effort to broaden congressional support for the measure.
Her presence gave Hegseth and Caine periodic relief from Iran-related questioning as senators from both parties pivoted to agricultural concerns affecting their home states.
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