Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth defended his tenure and outlined his priorities for the department this week during three separate hearings on Capitol Hill.
He faced difficult questions from the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees on defense and the House Armed Services Committee, ranging from the limited details available for next year’s budget to the department’s acceptance of a Qatari aircraft to be retrofitted as Air Force One, and the deployment of National Guard troops and active-duty Marines to Los Angeles.
Budget
Hegseth received bipartisan criticism for the delayed release of the department’s budget, though it has released topline figures.
The defense-spending budget request is approximately $831 billion, roughly what it was last year with less buying power due to inflation, though the department seeks to boost it with the highly contested reconciliation bill that would add more than $100 billion to that total.
“We have two bills and one budget,” Hegseth said.
Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee were critical of the proposal’s lack of details and the budget’s size as the new fiscal year quickly approaches.
“Even including reconciliation, the fiscal year 26 request is still just around 3% – that’s just half the level of the [President Ronald] Reagan buildup that secured ‘peace through strength,’” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), chairman of the Senate subcommittee, said. “It’s even less than the 4.5% of GDP requested for defense under President [Jimmy] Carter.”
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), the top Democrat on the subcommittee, said it was “officially the latest budget submission of the modern era,” though it’s not uncommon for the first budget from an administration to be delayed.
If the reconciliation legislation passes the chambers and is signed into law, the Pentagon’s budget could surpass $1 trillion, which has never happened before.
LA Protests
Hegseth faced a number of questions from lawmakers about the president’s decision to federalize and deploy roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles to help protect federal immigration officers carrying out deportation raids and defend federal property.
Hegseth defended Trump’s legal authority to do so, usurping Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), who opposed the president’s activation of the National Guard.
He acknowledged that the troops are there on a 60-day deployment, while Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell, the acting DOD comptroller, told lawmakers it would cost the department roughly $134 million.
During one of the hearings, Hegseth warned that the U.S. is entering a new “phase” where the National Guard will play an essential role in protecting the homeland.
“The National Guard is a huge component of how we see the future,” he said.
Newsom has filed a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration’s deployment of the National Guard. Hegseth did not agree on Thursday to abide by the court’s decision despite being asked about the subject multiple times.
“What I can say is we should not have local judges determining foreign policy or national security policy for the country,” Hegseth said.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hesitantly contradicted the administration’s stated opinion that the United States is being invaded.
“At this point in time, I don’t see any foreign, state-sponsored folks invading, but I’ll be mindful of the fact that there have been some border issues throughout time,” Caine said.
US/Iran/Israel
The U.S. is trying to negotiate a new nuclear agreement with Iran; the sixth round of talks is expected to be held this weekend in Oman. Trump has expressed more pessimism in recent days about the prospects of the two sides bridging the gaps in their positions.
Trump has said he wants to give diplomacy a chance, but has also indicated that he’s willing to use military action to stop the Iranians from obtaining a nuclear weapon, if needed.
Tension increased on Wednesday when Hegseth approved the evacuation of military families from undisclosed bases in the region and the State Department evacuated U.S. diplomats in Iraq.
“There are plenty of indications that [Iran has] been moving their way towards something that would look a lot like a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said during Wednesday’s hearing, in response to a question about whether Tehran’s nuclear program was peaceful.
SEVEN TAKEAWAYS FROM PETE HEGSETH’S SENATE SHOWDOWN OVER PENTAGON SPENDING
The head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Michael Kurilla, also testified in front of lawmakers on Tuesday, confirming that he’s provided military plans to the secretary and president about how to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon militarily.
President Donald Trump said on Thursday, “Well, I don’t want to say imminent, but it looks like [military action is] something that could very well happen.”
