The Pentagon expects the war with Iran to cost $37.5 billion through the end of September, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators Tuesday — $8.5 billion over what the Trump administration estimated in May — as renewed fighting threatens to drive the price still higher.
The disclosure came during a combative Senate Appropriations Committee hearing that exposed the political challenge facing the administration as it seeks nearly $88 billion in emergency funding. Democrats demanded an endgame and an accounting of the portion of the request that has little link to Iran, while Republicans argued Congress must pay the military’s bills and rebuild depleted munitions stock.
Hegseth said the $37.5 billion figure includes what the Pentagon has already racked up in war costs, as well as anticipated military personnel, operations and maintenance expenses through Sept. 30. Experts last month estimated the war’s cost to be roughly $40 billion, before the ceasefire collapsed and daily strikes resumed.
Democrats also questioned why the Pentagon needed another $67 billion from Congress when it still has $75 billion in unobligated money from last year’s Republican package. Hegseth said those funds were already intended for longer-term priorities such as the Golden Dome, shipbuilding, hypersonic weapons and expanded munitions production — and that “95%” of the $154 billion Congress granted the Pentagon last year would be allocated by September.
Trending
“That’s news to me,” said Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
The hearing marked the most extensive public remarks from Hegseth and Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, following the ceasefire’s collapse. The U.S. military announced the deaths of three service members last weekend, bringing the U.S. death toll to 17 since the conflict began.
The Trump administration submitted an $87.6 billion supplemental spending request that includes $32.7 billion in Iran war costs, another $39.2 billion in nonwar national security activities and $15.6 billion in unrelated activities, including relief for farm aid and other domestic programs.
The administration’s effort to combine the war money with politically popular domestic relief could complicate Republicans’ approach to spending negotiations. During the hearing, lawmakers from both parties highlighted financial strains on farmers and ongoing disaster-recovery needs in states including North Carolina and California.
Republicans, led by Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), largely rallied behind the request. Collins argued that despite senators’ disagreements over the decision to go to war with Iran, Congress still has a responsibility to restore military readiness.
“Our men and women in uniform do not decide our nation’s military strategy,” she said. “Congress has a responsibility to ensure that they have the tools, the training, and the support that they need to accomplish their missions.”
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the committee’s top Democrat, said much of the administration’s $88 billion request had little to do with the war — citing its inclusion of money for National Guard deployments in Washington, D.C., Army operations at the southern border, strikes against boats in the Caribbean and the munitions already requested through the administration’s 2027 budget.
“My point is that a lot of this request does not feel like an emergency,” Murray said.
Multiple Democrats challenged Hegseth to square the Trump administration’s assertions that Iran’s military had been severely degraded given its subsequent control of the Strait of Hormuz and continued strikes on U.S. and allied targets.
In one of the hearing’s most heated exchanges, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) took aim at Trump’s claims last year that Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities had been destroyed.
“Was it ‘obliterated’ or wasn’t it?” Gillibrand asked. “Why are there missiles left to hit Jordan and result in the loss of life of our brave men and women?”
Hegseth pushed back. “The nuclear sites under Midnight Hammer were obliterated, but Iranians foolishly continued to attempt to pursue nuclear capabilities,” he said.
“As we stated from the beginning, the Iranian defense industrial base is effectively gone, but they do have underground facilities because they’re the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, and they’ve spent 47 years trying to hide their missiles under mountains.”
After Trump vowed the U.S. will soon bomb Iran’s underground Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site, Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) pressed for “straight answers” on whether the U.S. could destroy the country’s deeply buried nuclear facilities.
But Hegseth didn’t go into detail. “A lot of our capabilities are classified,” he said. “But if anybody in the world can reach anything on God’s green earth, it’s the United States military.”
Other Democrats questioned the prewar planning. Sen. Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) argued that Hegseth had failed to prepare Trump for the risk that Iran would disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, drive up oil prices and continue striking U.S. forces.
“Of course, the Strait of Hormuz was front and center in every single aspect of that,” Hegseth said, adding that Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping had been part of the military planning.
Reed also asked Caine whether airstrikes alone could deter and defeat Iran, and he wanted to know whether the administration was considering a ground war. Caine declined to discuss possible troop deployments.
Authors
