From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Hegseth faces questions from senators over funding for Iran war
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
US Senators launch pointed remarks in a hearing with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the US’s ongoing conflict with Iran, as Republicans push a $95 billion budget package to fund the military, along with aid to farmers and voting law changes that are top White House priorities.
Hegseth, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins are set to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee days after the Pentagon announced that three more American service members died in the conflict, bringing the death toll to 17, and that more than 100 have been injured since early July.
“This war is now spiraling out of control again,” says Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the panel, who warns the conflict with Iran “could be another forever war.”
US President Donald Trump “has told us over 40 times now that a deal is near, and the war will be over soon,” Murray says. “But now, he’s asking for $70 billion more — and for us to just trust him it’ll all work out fine.”
Ahead of the hearing, the White House issued a statement of administration policy urging support of the budget resolution “without modification—immediately.”
War funding makes up the bulk of the GOP’s new budget proposal, one last priority package the Republicans hope to launch before lawmakers recess to campaign for the November midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
“The commander in chief and the whole Department of War are working very hard to bring this to a resolution,” US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, says at his weekly press conference. “There’s a lot of questions about how that will be done.”
Senators have also pressed the defense secretary to release the Pentagon’s report on the deadly attack on an Iranian primary school at the start of the war and threatened to withhold his own travel budget unless he complies.
This week, the Senate will consider another war powers resolution, having voted nearly a dozen times to try to halt the conflict.
The Times of Israel Community.