Senator Murray Grills Hegseth on State of Iran War, Refuses to Write Trump a Blank Check to Fund Iran War

***WATCH and READ : Senator Murray's opening remarks***

***WATCH: Senator Murray's full questioning***

Washington, D.C. - Today-at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Trump's supplemental funding request for the Iran war, more Pentagon funding, and other requests-U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, grilled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on the disastrous and costly failure that is the Iran war and on why the president is seeking more funding to keep it going-particularly as the Pentagon sits on unspent funds-instead of working with Congress to help families with skyrocketing costs.

"My Democratic colleagues and I will do absolutely everything to ensure that we do take care of our servicemembers and keep our country safe," Senator Murray said in opening remarks. "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."

"Instead of bankrolling the president's war or sending ICE $70 billion, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle could work with us to quadruple our investments to cure cancer, or help families afford child care, or help them afford to cool their homes," continued Murray. "These are policy choices."

President Trump has requested $87.6 billion in supplemental funding he wants Congress to quickly approve in addition to the staggering $1.5 trillion defense budget he has already requested for fiscal year 2027. His supplemental request includes asks for:

• $67.1 billion in new funding for the Department of Defense, even as DOD has a historic $1 trillion combined budget for FY26 and sits on roughly $75 billion in unspent funding provided in Republicans' "Big Beautiful Bill." The request includes:
• • $18+ billion in munitions that have already been requested in the president's FY27 budget request.
  • $800 million to continue funding the National Guard's deployment in D.C.
  • $1+ billion for the Army to patrol the southern border.
  • $900 million for SOUTHCOM to support this administration's illegal boat strikes in the Caribbean.
  • Operational and management funding to cover unexpected costs associated with the Iran war, which the Pentagon has existing flexibilities to shift funds around to cover.
  • $1.7 billion to cover costs associated with recruiting more servicemembers than DOD needs and than was contemplated by the FY26 budget. DOD has already submitted a request to reprogram existing funding to cover these costs.
    
• $11.1 billion for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which includes:
• • $10 billion to make economic relief payments to farmers ravaged by Trump's tariffs and rising input costs fueled by the Iran war.
  • $1.1 billion for ad hoc disaster assistance that would only benefit farmers in Florida.
    
• $9.4 billion for a variety of other requests, including:
• • $3.3 billion for the State Department. Of that amount, $1.3 billion is requested for Ebola response and humanitarian assistance-all while the administration withholds more than twice that amount in already-enacted funding available for the same purposes.
    

[TRUMP'S INCOHERENT PENTAGON REQUEST]

Senator Murray began by pressing Secretary Hegseth on how the Pentagon's request is not merely a request to cover costs associated with President Trump's disastrous war, but an effort to secure tens of billions of dollars more for unrelated Pentagon priorities that are not needed on an emergency basis and should be considered in the annual appropriations process.

MURRAY: Secretary Hegseth, your Department received $150 billion last year in the Republicans' "Big Beautiful Bill." And it also received a record $839 billion for fiscal year 2026 - more money than you asked for last year. Combined, that is a $1 trillion budget for the year-and as I already mentioned, your Department has yet to spend half of the reconciliation funds.

Despite that, you are here today asking for tens of billions of dollars more for things that you've already asked for in your FY27 request or that have nothing to do with Iran.

This administration has tried to sell this as an emergency request, but it may be better understood as an attempt to skirt the normal appropriations process.

Here are just a few of the things requested in this "Iran" supplemental: $800 million for the National Guard to patrol DC even longer. Over $1 billion for the Army to patrol the southern border, which is DHS's job. $900 million to support the administration's illegal boat strikes in the Caribbean. Over $18 billion for munitions, which you have already requested in your FY27 budget request. And $1.7 billion to pay for your decision to recruit more people than the services need, which was not contemplated by the FY26 funding bill Congress recently passed. Now, you have already submitted a reprogramming request on this that our subcommittee is considering now, which really underscores the point I made in my opening remarks that the problem is not a lack of money, but poor planning.

So, I'll be blunt: the truth is your request does not make a lot of sense.

So, let me ask you a simple question: Why exactly are billions of dollars more for the National Guard and this administration's illegal strikes in the Caribbean urgently needed for the Iran war?

HEGSETH: Well, Senator, I wouldn't-of course-agree with your characterization, but why this kind of spending is needed is because of the gross negligence and neglect of the Biden administration inside our department. [Biden] ran it like a bureaucracy, abandoned our strength posture around the world, so we're having to reestablish deterrence.

You mentioned the end strength numbers, and I will acknowledge that we are ahead of schedule on end strength in recruiting, 8,000 in the Navy, 6,000 in the Army, 4,000 in the Air Force. Because under President Trump, there's been record and historic over 30-year recruiting records inside our department since he won the election. Because the American people didn't want to sign up for what Joe Biden was providing our military, and they want to sign up for what President Trump is doing in his leadership, and so those are good problems to have that we need to fund, and a reflection of momentum. And this budget will allow us to continue the kind of momentum that gets us ahead.

MURRAY: My point is that a lot of this request does not feel like an emergency. Let me move on.

[HEGSETH'S CONTRADICTORY STATEMENTS ON THE WAR]

Senator Murray then grilled Secretary Hegseth on a few of the many contradictory statements he has made about what the U.S. has achieved in the war.

MURRAY: Secretary Hegseth, like most Americans, I have had a lot of trouble following this administration's contradictory statements about the war.

On April 8, you said, and I quote, "Their missile program is functionally destroyed, launchers, production facilities and existing stockpiles depleted and decimated and almost completely ineffective."

Mr. Secretary, Iran has been firing at U.S. military bases in the region and at ships for the last week. How is it possible if their capabilities were "functionally destroyed" three months earlier, as you claimed for them to be doing this now?

HEGSETH: Senator, Iran is at the weakest point militarily it has ever been in in the past decade. Certainly, maybe in 47 years, as they'd gathered effectively a terror army, and that terror army was built to try to create conventional capabilities to defend against a pursuit of nuclear weapons, which meant thousands of ballistic missiles, many of which we have destroyed, others of which they have put inside facilities and hidden in underground facilities-that's what terror regimes would do. So, I acknowledge they still have capabilities, no doubt, but the amount of damage that we've done to them over the course of these series of operations has put them in the worst place they've ever been.

MURRAY: Let me move on. On May 5, you claimed that "Iran doesn't control the Strait," and you said that there was a "powerful red, white, and blue dome over the Strait."

If that was true, how did Iran shrink ship traffic in the Strait to a trickle again last week?

HEGSETH: We pushed almost, I believe, between 400 and 500 million barrels of oil under the nose of Iran over the course of Project Freedom, which went underground, which I acknowledged after we did so. Covertly, because it was more effective to do so quietly than to do so publicly. So, we've been in control of moving traffic through there for quite some time. Will they retain the ability to recklessly shoot at commercial shipping? And that's what happened. We had a ceasefire, and then they shot at commercial shipping recklessly-

MURRAY: Well, you also said at that same press conference-and I'm going to quote you-you urged Iran to, "let innocent ships pass freely. These international waters belong to all nations, not to Iran to tax, toll, or control."

Last week, President Trump said that the U.S. would charge a 20 percent toll to each ship to pass through the Strait. So, based on your opposition to tolls, did you talk the President out of that idea or did someone else?

HEGSETH: Iran's not charging tolls, and they're shooting at ships right now.

MURRAY: But Trump said that he wanted to charge a 20 percent toll.

HEGSETH: We have a blockade right now of all Iranian ships, Iranian ports, and it's effective.

MURRAY: My time is up.

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