Pete Hegseth Faces Congress Over US-Israel War With Iran, Pentagon Budget Request

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced his first public questioning from Congress on the US-Israel war with Iran during a hearing that ran for hours alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine.

“Hegseth battles with Democrats -- and some Republicans -- over the Iran war and top officials' firings The Pentagon's comptroller said the war has cost $25 billion so far”

ABC News

The Al Jazeera report says the war began with the US-Israel launching attacks on Iran on February 28, and notes that Hegseth testified after the conflict had passed its two-month mark.

ABC News

Al Jazeera also reports that the Pentagon publicly put a price tag of $25bn on the war so far, with Hegseth delivering an at-times caustic defence of President Donald Trump’s policy.

CNBC similarly describes Hegseth’s opening remarks to the House Armed Services Committee, where he downplayed the length of the war and said the biggest “adversary” the U.S. faces is the “reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans.”

The hearing also addressed the Pentagon’s budget request for fiscal 2027, including Hegseth’s defence of the White House’s “historic request of a $1.5 trillion defence budget,” as Al Jazeera puts it.

Multiple outlets tie the testimony to the war’s operational pause, with Al Jazeera saying fighting has been largely paused since April 8 and that the U.S. imposed a naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.

In the same Al Jazeera account, Trump’s public messaging is framed as a threat of renewed attacks, quoting that there would be “NO MORE MR. NICE GUY.”

The hearing turned repeatedly to cost and strategy, with the Pentagon comptroller Jules Hurst III putting a public figure on the war’s price while lawmakers pressed for details.

Al Jazeera says the Pentagon’s acting comptroller, Jules Hurst III, publicly put an official price tag on the war for the first time at $25bn, adding that Hurst said “most of that” price was in munitions, as well as the cost of surging assets to the Middle East and equipment lost in the fighting.

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera also reports that Hegseth would not say if the figure accounted for damage to US military bases in the region or the cost of backfilling the US weapons stock.

CNBC similarly states that Hurst said the war’s cost is estimated at $25 billion so far, mostly in munitions, and that the Pentagon will send a supplemental request once it has a full assessment of the cost of the conflict.

ABC News adds that the Pentagon comptroller said the war has cost $25 billion so far, and describes the hearing as “more a debate on the war with Iran” than a budget session.

ABC News also says the Pentagon has said it will ask for $200 billion in supplemental funding for the campaign.

In contrast, Al-Jazeera Net reports that CNN cited three people familiar with a senior Pentagon official’s estimate and described the $25 billion figure as a low estimate, saying the real cost estimate is closer to $40 to $50 billion when accounting for rebuilding military facilities and replacing destroyed assets.

Lawmakers challenged Hegseth’s account of the war’s objectives, focusing on Iran’s nuclear programme and on whether the conflict was drifting into a “quagmire.”

Al Jazeera reports that Representative Adam Smith, a Democrat, seized on Hegseth’s statements that Iran’s nuclear programme was “obliterated” following the 12-day war with Iran in 2025 and that it presented an imminent threat in the run-up to the most recent war.

In that exchange, Smith is quoted saying, “We had to start this war, you just said, 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat. Now you’re saying that it was completely obliterated,” and Smith adds, “Iran’s nuclear programme is exactly what it was before this war started.”

Al Jazeera then quotes Hegseth’s response: “Their facilities are bombed and obliterated,” and adds that “Their ambitions continued, and they’re building a conventional shield.”

CNBC describes a similar confrontation, quoting Smith saying, “As we sit here today, Iran's nuclear program is exactly what it was before this war started,” and asking, “What is the plan to get that to change?”

The “quagmire” argument also became a flashpoint, with Al Jazeera saying Hegseth bristled when Representative John Garamendi called the war a “quagmire” and a “political and economic disaster at every level.”

ABC News adds a parallel exchange where Garamendi accused Hegseth of lying about the war’s progress, quoting Garamendi’s line: “The president has got himself in America stuck in the quagmire of another war in the Middle East.”

Beyond nuclear questions, lawmakers pressed Hegseth on the war’s economic and operational pressure points, including the Strait of Hormuz, while Democrats also raised concerns about congressional oversight and the War Powers Resolution.

Al Jazeera says Hegseth maintained that the Trump administration had “looked at all aspects” of the possibility Iran might close the Strait of Hormuz, describing Tehran’s control of the route as a main point of leverage in the war.

Al-Jazeera Net

CNBC reports that the U.S. has choked vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz since the beginning of the conflict, and that oil prices spiked globally as a result, with U.S. crude hitting $106 per barrel and Brent rising to $118 per barrel on Wednesday.

In the same CNBC account, Rep. Ro Khanna questioned Hegseth on economic costs borne by Americans, and Hegseth responded by asking, “I would simply ask you what the cost is of an Iranian nuclear bomb,” while accusing Khanna of “playing gotcha questions about domestic things.”

MS NOW frames the oversight debate by saying Democrats and some Republicans have shown interest in invoking the War Powers Resolution of 1973, and that the law requires the president to seek congressional approval for an armed conflict lasting more than 60 days, with a 30-day withdrawal period giving the Trump administration until June to pull out of the war.

Euronews adds that Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. Senate warned of the possibility Trump could issue orders to deploy ground forces in Iran, after a closed briefing with senior defense and intelligence officials described as insufficient and not providing clear answers.

Euronews reports that House Speaker Mike Johnson defended the military operations, telling reporters at former President Trump’s Doral resort that the operation is limited in scope and mission and that it is nearly complete.