The Pentagon’s top budget official told Congress on Tuesday that the Iran war has so far cost taxpayers an estimated $29 billion, a sharp uptick that shows that even with a ceasefire technically in place, the price tag is climbing.

The figure is up from a $25 billion estimate last month, an increase acting Pentagon Comptroller Jay Hurst attributed to “updated repair and replacement of equipment costs and also just general operational costs” associated with keeping forces deployed in the region.

Hurst’s comments to the House Appropriations defense subcommittee came as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top officials made back-to-back Capitol Hill appearances to defend President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget request for 2027.

The new $29 billion estimate includes munitions expenditures, aircraft and equipment damage, operations and maintenance costs, and other expenses tied to Operation Epic Fury, the administration’s military campaign against Iran and its proxies. Hurst separately told lawmakers that replacement and repair costs alone account for roughly $24 billion of the estimate.

The rising cost of the war is creating political pressure on the administration, especially as higher gas prices and inflation squeeze American consumers. While Republicans are largely supportive of the administration when it comes to Iran, some are also growing impatient for clearer answers about the conflict’s long-term cost and the endgame.

Pentagon officials have said a supplemental spending request may be made once the department completes a full assessment of the cost of conflict. But lawmakers from both parties pressed the administration for more detailed breakdowns and warned that Congress must act on a request soon.

“We need that by June 11,” Rep. Betty McCollum, the panel’s top Democrat, told Pentagon officials, ordering detailed cost estimates for military personnel, munitions, facilities damage, fuel, and ship maintenance.

The hearing also displayed some queasiness among appropriators in both parties over the administration’s broader strategy of financing a massive Pentagon buildup through party-line reconciliation legislation that faces uncertain prospects in Congress, rather than a traditional annual appropriations bill.

Panel Republicans, including House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, said they backed rebuilding the defense industrial base and expanding weapons production but warned that reconciliation was a risky bet.

“I have concerns about the use of reconciliation,” Cole told Hegseth. “I don’t have any concerns about the amount.”

Lawmakers also voiced concerns that the Iran war, in which the U.S. has expended thousands of munitions, was exposing stockpile shortages and lagging industrial capacity. Hegseth pushed back at a characterization of those supplies as “depleted.”

“The munitions issue is foolishly and unhelpfully overstated,” he said. “We have plenty of what we need.”