Why are senators threatening Pete Hegseth's budget? Inside Congress' demand for Iran strike reports
Senators are looking to jam Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until the Pentagon shares more information about the US military’s strikes on alleged drug boats and the lethal bombing of an Iranian girls schools at the beginning of the US-Israel was with Iran.
The Republican-led Senate committee has threatened to freeze the bulk of Hegseth’s travel budget unless the Pentagon hands over potentially damning information on military operations.
What the Senate bill demands
Under the defense policy bill filed by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, “not more than 25 percent” of the defense secretary’s travel budget can be used until Hegseth provides Congress with “unredacted civilian harm investigations” and other relevant documents on strikes in the Middle East and Latin America, per the Daily Beast.
Senators on the Armed Services Committee which led by Republican Sen Roger Wicker has singled out the April 2025 strikes in Yemen that killed dozens and the February 2026 bombing of the Minab girls’ school in Iran that killed at least 150 students and staff.
The panel is also demanding unedited video of strikes conducted against designated terrorist organizations in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, a military campaign that kicked off in early September, according to The Hill.
The lawmakers specifically demanded that Hegseth provide the Senate and House Armed Services Committees with “unedited video of strikes conducted against designated terrorist organizations in the area of responsibility of the United States Southern Command,” in reference to the deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean.
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The Senate committee filed the NDAA on Tuesday and approved the massive defense policy bill in an 18-9 vote. Lawmakers had added similar rules in last year’s NDAA too, demanding the Pentagon hand over unedited videos of the boat strikes and explain the specific orders behind the attacks or else Hegseth’s travel budget would be cut by 25 percent.
These new rules were not part of the competing NDAA bill that the House Armed Services Committee approved. Lawmakers in both the Senate and House will now debate the bill in the coming months to come up with a final and combined version.
Democratic Sen Jack Reed, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the bill “strengthens national defense and enhances oversight and accountability,” per the Daily Beast. “It forces the Secretary to be more accountable to Congress and will prevent many errors of the past from being repeated in the future,” he said in a statement.
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Background of the strikes under scrutiny
Since September 2, the US military has carried out of at at least 64 strikes on what is calls drug- smuggling boast in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific which killed at least 208 “narco-terrorists”. The Trump administration says the strikes are meant to stop illegal drugs but law-of-war experts say they violate international law.
Last month, the Pentagon’s watchdog began reviewing whether the military followed proper rules when carrying out the attacks.
Separately, the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, Iran, was struck during the early hours of US-Israeli strikes on February 28 and killed at least 175 people, mostly children, according to Iranian officials, per The Hill.
However, the Pentagon says the incident is under investigation but has not taken responsibility for the deaths. As per New York Times, that investigation is complete and is now waiting for sign-off from the White House, Hegseth and senior military leaders.