Where did the money go?' US senators grill Pete Hegseth as Iran war cost hits ₹3.62 trillion

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the cost of the U.S. war with Iran has climbed to $37.5 billion, marking an $8.5 billion increase from the nearly $29 billion estimate he gave in May.

"The estimate we have as of today is $37.5 billion," Hegseth said during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing

Further defending a request for $67 billion in supplemental funding for the Pentagon, Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress the funding is "urgent" and "necessary" to cover the Pentagon's costs for the Iran war through the end of September.

“Without these funds, we face critical shortfalls,” Hegseth told the Senate panel and warned that it would threaten the defence department’s ability to “pay our service members, rapidly replenish equipment and munitions, and sustain vital operations without disruption”.

It was the defence secretary’s first sustained public questioning since a brief ceasefire collapsed and the war roared back to life. Here's how the Senate panel challenged Hegseth.

What has the war achieved so far?

Patty Murray, the committee's top Democrat, asked Hegseth to explain what the war had achieved so far. She accused the administration of changing its reasons for the conflict every week and warned it could turn into "another forever war."

“We hear a different rationale for this war every few days,” Murray said in her opening remarks, as reported by The Guardian. She asserted that justification for the war had moved from pre-empting threats that “did not exist” to regime change, then to dismantling Iran’s nuclear programme and navy, and now, she said, to simply reopening the strait of Hormuz, a waterway that was “fully open, toll-free, before this war began”.

“Here we are, five months later”, she continued. “The strait is closed. The ceasefire hasn’t just disintegrated – this war is now spiralling out of control again.”

Where did the unspent money go?

Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen challenged Hegseth's assessment, noting that the defence department still has $75 billion in unspent funds.

"Why are you asking the American people to absorb the cost of a war they don't support instead of asking for transfer authority for unspent reconciliation funding?"

Hegseth said the unspent money was "otherwise allocated" for President Donald Trump's other priorities, like the "Golden Dome for America and hypersonics and other munitions investments."

The requested funds do not include the cost of rebuilding US military bases in the Middle East.

What would happen if the US left Hormuz?

Lawmakers voiced frustration as they pressed for details of the Trump administration's strategy to win the war in the Middle East.

Demands for transparency crossed partisan lines, with Republican Senator John Kennedy saying "we need some hard answers and some straight talk" when he asked what would happen if the US just left the Strait of Hormuz.

Hegseth and Caine did not offer specifics on whether Iran would impose fees for ships seeking passage.