Pentagon puts war at $29 billion as Hegseth is mum on funding request

WASHINGTON -- A top Pentagon official testified Tuesday that the cost of the war with Iran had risen to around $29 billion, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused repeatedly to tell members of Congress how much he would request on an emergency basis, or when, to fund the 11-week-old conflict.

Jay Hurst, the Pentagon comptroller, said the cost of the war had risen to “closer” to $29 billion since Hegseth testified on Capitol Hill two weeks ago, when he estimated it had cost $25 billion.

“That’s because of updated repair and replacement of equipment costs and also just general operational costs,” Hurst said.

But in back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill, Hegseth sidestepped questions about how much money outside the Pentagon’s normal budget would ultimately be needed to finance the war -- and when he would request it -- even as Republicans and Democrats alike pressed him for details.

He also made it clear that the administration had no intention of seeking authorization from Congress to continue operations in Iran.

“It’ll be helpful to get the supplemental sooner rather than later so we can get to work on it,” Rep. Ken Calvert of California, the Republican chair of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, told the secretary, inquiring about when a funding request would be submitted.

“First of all, the munitions issue has been foolishly and unhelpfully overstated,” Hegseth replied. “We know exactly what we have. We have plenty of what we need.

“Whatever we think we need, we will submit,” he added.

The White House told Congress earlier this month that hostilities with Iran had terminated amid a ceasefire. On Tuesday, however, Republicans and Democrats raised questions about the cost of the continuing military operation in the region and the durability of the ceasefire that the administration was relying on to make that claim.

Hegseth was on Capitol Hill to testify to House and Senate appropriations subcommittees reviewing the Pentagon’s nearly $1.45 trillion budget request for the coming year.

His assertion that munitions had not been depleted by the war was difficult to square with the Defense Department’s historically large request, which includes a large infusion for restocking munitions.

The war has forced the Pentagon to rush bombs, missiles and other hardware to the Middle East from commands in Asia and Europe. The drawdowns have left these regional commands less ready to confront potential adversaries like Russia and China and have forced the United States to find ways to scale up production to address the depletions, officials in the Trump administration and in Congress have said.

But Gen. Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also sought to allay fears that the war had significantly drained much of the U.S. military’s global supply of munitions.

“We have sufficient munitions for what we’re tasked to do right now,” Caine said, citing what he said top commanders around the world had told him.

Testifying to the Senate, Hurst said the $29 billion estimate did not include the cost of repairing more than a dozen U.S. military bases damaged by Iranian attacks.

“We don’t know how those bases would be reconstructed,” Hurst testified, adding, “We just don’t have a good estimate at this time.”

When Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, pressed Hegseth to provide a cost estimate, he deflected the question.

“What is the cost of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon?” Hegseth responded. “And the fact that this president has been willing to make a historic and courageous choice to confront that -- it comes with costs.”

The House hearing concluded with the top Republican and Democrat urging Hegseth to move quickly to submit a request -- on top of the Defense Department’s annual budget -- for additional money to fund the war.

“Sooner is better,” Calvert said. “This makes my job easier, and at the end of the day, it makes your job easier, Mr. Secretary, if we can get the information both on the base budget and on the supplemental.”

Democrats and one Republican rejected the Trump administration’s claim that the war had drawn to a close, pointing to the fighting in the Strait of Hormuz, and said the White House had demonstrated a pattern of withholding critical information from Congress about the conflict.

“We still have 15,000 troops that are forward deployed, more than 20 warships and an active naval blockade,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. “In other words, it doesn’t appear that hostilities have ended.”

Murkowski, who has criticized the White House for failing to seek approval to wage the war, asked Hegseth if the administration “has considered or had intended” to seek an authorization.

The secretary made clear that the White House had no intention of doing so.

“Our view is that, should the president make the decision to recommence, that we would have all the authorities necessary to do so,” he said. President Donald Trump, he added, “has all the authorities he needs under Article 2” of the Constitution.

Another Republican who came out against the war with Iran in recent weeks, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, asked whether, in the course of planning the operation that began Feb. 28, the Trump administration had “anticipated” that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz, choking off global shipping.

“We’ve seen gas, diesel and home heating oil prices go up,” said Collins, who voted with Democrats on a resolution that failed last month to halt the war.

Caine declined to comment on advice he may have given Trump on the war. “It seems to me that there’s been a different plan almost daily with dealing with this problem, which is why I ask,” the senator replied.

Hegseth sought to deflect questions about the durability of the ceasefire.

“As you know, for the most part, a ceasefire means fire is ceasing, and we know that has occurred while negotiations occur,” Hegseth said.

But he added that the administration could restart the war if negotiations were to collapse.

“We have a plan to escalate, if necessary,” the secretary testified, declining to provide more details. “We have a plan to retrograde if necessary. We have a plan to shift assets.”

Hegseth has repeatedly said he wants to rely in part on a reconciliation bill, a budget-related measure that is shielded from a filibuster, to fund the Defense Department. That would allow the White House to steer around Democratic opposition and push it through with only Republican votes.

But a senior Republican warned that strategy could backfire, suggesting that some in the GOP might not be willing to go along with the high levels of spending the Pentagon has requested.

“I would remind you that, frankly, the use of reconciliation depends on political support in Congress,” said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the Republican chair of the Appropriations Committee.

He added, “It’s a high-risk strategy, as opposed to building things” into the annual appropriations bill, which needs bipartisan backing to pass.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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