Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, left, and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testify during a House Appropriations subcommittee budget hearing on defense on Monday, May 11, 2026, in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — The cost of the Iran war has climbed to $29 billion, rising by $4 billion in two weeks as the conflict stretched into a third month, and lawmakers pressed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to send a supplemental funding request to Congress as soon as possible.
The Pentagon comptroller, Jay Hurst, provided the updated figure, factoring in new equipment and operational costs, during back-to-back testimony to the House and Senate defense appropriations subcommittees on Tuesday but cautioned that the estimate was not exhaustive.
It does not include damage sustained by U.S. military bases in the Middle East as they came under retaliatory attack by Iran. That calculation depends on the future posture of American forces in the region, whether the nations hosting the installations will contribute to their repair and what reconstruction would look like, he said.
Of the $29 billion, $24 billion is tied to the cost of replacing and repairing equipment expended in the war, according to Hurst. He gave lawmakers a $25 billion total war cost estimate at the end of April.
Hegseth, testifying alongside Hurst as well as Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Pentagon will share more official costs “when it’s relevant and required.” He would not say when the Pentagon would request additional money to finance the war.
Lawmakers of both parties on Tuesday urged for a swift and detailed accounting of the conflict’s full cost. Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., described congressional efforts to pry that number from the Pentagon since the war in Iran began at the end of February as long and “excruciating.”
“I think General Washington reported quicker to the Continental Congress than this has been in terms of the reports to the United States Congress,” he said.
Sen. Jack Reed, of Rhode Island, a member of the Senate defense appropriations panel and the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said senators have sent multiple letters in an unsuccessful effort to track down expenditures.
“Before we can reasonably appropriate additional money, we have to find out how the existing appropriated dollars have been spent,” he told Hurst.
Rep. Ken Calvert, of California, the Republican chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, pushed Hegseth to quickly submit a supplemental funding request.
“It’ll be helpful to get the supplemental sooner rather than later so we can get to work on it,” he said.
Calvert’s counterpart in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, said the request would be an opportunity to refill critical munitions stocks that the U.S. had underinvested in long before the Iran conflict and Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Hegseth has repeatedly said the Iran war has not depleted munitions, asserting on Tuesday that the issue has been “foolishly and unhelpfully overstated.”
“We know exactly what we have; we have plenty of what we need,” he said.
Hegseth explained the Pentagon’s focus on accelerating munitions production within its $1.5 trillion budget request for 2027 as a consequence of the Pentagon’s “static” procurement process and “what Ukraine has been getting for years and years.”
Caine confirmed to lawmakers on Tuesday that combatant commands outside the Middle East have not been stretched thin by the war.
“We have sufficient munitions for what we’re tasked to do right now,” he said.
Lawmakers on Tuesday also questioned Hegseth and Caine about the status of the campaign against Tehran, with Democrats and some Republicans rejecting that the conflict was in a ceasefire.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said it did not appear that hostilities have ended, as President Donald Trump had told Congress earlier this month. She pointed to the 50,000 troops and more than 20 warships deployed to the region as well as an ongoing naval blockade of Iranian ports and recent exchanges of fire.
Murkowski said last month that she would introduce legislation to authorize the continued use of force in Iran, as required under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, but Hegseth on Tuesday said he believed Trump had “all the authorities” he needs to execute the war if he chooses to “recommence” it.
Senate Democrats said they will force a vote on a seventh resolution to halt the war absent congressional authorization later this week.
