SerpApi.Org
The Senate Appropriations Committee held a hearing Tuesday to review the Trump administration's request for an $87.6 billion emergency funding package. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was one of the witnesses, testifying specifically about the portion - $67 billion - that would go to the Pentagon to help cover the costs of the U.S. war with Iran and replenish depleted weapons stocks.
Here is a portion of Defense Secretary Hegseth's opening statement:
HEGSETH: "We have built a different department. The Pentagon is no longer run by bureaucrats. Instead, it is led by combat-tested veterans, world-class business leaders who are running the department like a business, and tech titans who are bringing lethal innovation to the battlefield. We are implementing long overdue changes to how the Department does business, focusing on efficient and effective use of resources in an accountable manner. We are changing how we buy things, how we develop systems, how we recruit people, and how we fight when called upon.
"This is our last chance. If we don't make critical investments in tech, computing, AI, and space, our adversaries, who are already making these investments, will outpace us on an exponential path. Our adversaries do not follow our multi-year budget cycle, which programs fiscal requests years ahead of execution. We must adapt to be more flexible in the near term to meet emerging threats – necessitating this supplemental request. That is why the War Department requests this supplemental for fiscal year 2026. This request is an urgent, necessary injection of resources to address the immediate needs of the department.
"Without the supplemental funds, we will face critical shortfalls that threaten our ability to pay our service members, replenish some of the equipment and munitions consumed during contingency operations, and sustain vital global operations without disruption.
"The supplemental request serves two purposes: sustain our military readiness to meet this year's new demands; and accelerate critical capabilities to replace and augment those we have used in recent contingencies. Additionally, the Department is requesting targeted legislative authorities to enable the deployment of resources at the speed of relevance.
"The Department is requesting: $21.3 billion to address emergent requirements, maintain global contingency operations, and protect critical national security interests. This funding bolsters our ability to successfully meet new and current missions and provide resources needed.
• $15.1 billion for core operational costs, funding military pay, and operational shortfalls in training and readiness accounts and other mission-related costs.
• $2 billion to replace equipment lost or damaged during combat operations.
• $0.2 billion to establish a strategic hub in Diego Garcia.
• $1.7 billion to continue to grow our military personnel end strength, including medical staff, amidst record-breaking recruitment numbers.
• $1.5 billion to stabilize mission-critical fuel shortfalls.
• $0.8 billion for National Guard support for homeland defense and major events, like the World Cup.
"The Department is requesting $45.9 billion in targeted funding to rapidly strengthen our military forces by expanding production lines, advancing high-priority development, and accelerating the delivery of critical capabilities and munitions to the Warfighter."
• $21.0 billion accelerates the acquisition of high-demand munitions through multi-year procurement, expands domestic production capacity, and fortifies supply chain resilience to sustain high-intensity operations of high-demand munitions (MAC, Solid Rocket Motors, JDAM-LR, Hypersonics, and LCCM-GL).
• $13.3 billion to advance essential operational and security support for the joint force to deploy and sustain its combat power. This funding supports key priorities, such as J I ATF-401 for National Capital Region support and classified force protection.
• $11.6 billion to build digital and battlefield dominance through targeted investments in drones, space-based target tracking and resilient satellite networks, advanced computing, joint cyber defenses, and survivability enhancements and MQ-9 platforms. Legislative Authorities: Once funds are appropriated to the Department, we need to promptly execute them. That is why we are requesting targeted legislative authorities: transfer authority to prioritize our greatest needs and opportunities; multi-year procurement for weapons systems; new start authorities; rescind and reappropriate funds for our directed energy program; and authorization for intelligence activities.
The Senate Appropriations Committee's ranking member, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), in her opening remarks, raised questions about the administration's handling of the war and the Pentagon's need for additional funding:
"The administration will tell the public-or Congress-the true financial costs of the war, but we know it is very well into the tens of billions of dollars.
"Tax dollars we could've spent helping people afford health care-or building new housing-have now been lit on fire by a president who blundered us into a disastrous war.
"And the costs to families' bank accounts are staggering.
"Economic growth has slowed to a crawl. Inflation has shot up about 50% since this war began.
"On average, gas cost just under three dollars on February 28. Today, it's over four dollars and ticking back up with the Strait closed again. Americans have now paid more than $70 billion more on gas since the war began. That is $550 more per household.
"Fertilizer costs skyrocketed in the middle of spring planting, crushing farmers operating on extremely thin margins, and costing families more on just about everything they buy at the grocery store.
"The costs of this war have been astronomical. And what has it been for? What has actually been achieved?
"We hear a different rationale for this war every few days. It was about preempting ‘imminent threats,' which we now know did not exist. It was about regime change, then liberating the Iranian people. It was about destroying Iran's nuclear program and its navy. And at one point, it was about taking out its ballistic missiles until, that is, the president decided that actually ‘it's a little bit unfair for them not to have some.' Trump has even suggested the war is about taking Iran's oil to ‘make a fortune.'
"And now, the United States' primary strategic objective seems to actually just be reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which, of course, was fully open-toll-free-before the war began.
"President Trump has-by any objective measure-failed to achieve his goals. Our country is no safer or better off than before the war. In fact, we are considerably less safe.
"Our stockpiles have been depleted-and it'll take years of production to fully replenish them-no matter how much money is thrown at the problem.
"Our global force posture is much weaker as assets have been moved to the Middle East.
"And we are now much farther away from a long-term solution to halt Iran's nuclear program than we were before Trump ripped up the deal that President Obama negotiated, which secured actual, measurable commitments and progress-without ever starting a costly war.
"In fact, there are new reports that Iran may have moved nuclear assets into a mountain bunker-which raises concerns about whether Iran might restart its program.
"It used to be a pretty somber and serious thing-a president taking America to war and costing lives and taxpayer dollars, but this president has been downright flippant.
"The people I represent worry Trump thinks this is all a game and has sent men and women into harm's way without any sort of plan, and now that he's driven the car into the ditch, he wants taxpayers to bail him out.
"As the daughter of a World War II veteran and a Purple Heart recipient, the way this White House has blissfully operated with no plan for success is disrespectful to our men and women in uniform.
"These are patriots who are highly trained and have sacrificed tremendously to keep us safe. They shouldn't be forced to put on a show for the president's birthday parade, or do the job of Border Patrol agents, or risk their lives in a disastrous war that the president clearly failed to think through.
"And as a U.S. Senator, this administration's refusal to explain what it is doing or how this war is protecting Americans, its refusal to seek authorization from Congress, and its expectation that Americans will now just pay for it all without any explanation or transparency, is disrespectful, and it's insulting to the people back home that all of us represent.
"So, here we are. Five months later. The Strait is closed. The ceasefire hasn't just disintegrated-this war is now spiraling out of control again.
"The president is threatening escalation and war crimes, and suggesting this could be another forever war.
"He has told us over 40 times now that a deal is near, and the war will be over soon. But now, he's asking for $70 billion more-and for us to just trust him it'll work out fine.
"Look, I've been very clear, my Democratic colleagues and I will do absolutely everything to ensure that we do take care of our servicemembers and keep our country safe.
"Chairman Caine, I hope you know that every Democrat on this Committee deeply respects the sacrifices that you and our servicemembers and their families are making. Everyone who signed up to serve our country deserves to be more than an afterthought in a war that the president decided to launch, despite all the blinking red warnings.
"But my colleagues and I cannot and will not support rubberstamping a request to bankroll this war and whatever other misadventures Trump wants to get us into next.
"The American people want to see a quick and strategic end to this war, not $70 billion of their tax dollars sent to keep it going."
