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Trump Administration Officials Testifying Before Senate on $87 Billion Funding Request. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 21, 2026 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

BROOKE ROLLINS, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE: Congress has taken similar action over many decades, and we're so grateful for that, but including most recently 2023 and 2024 with economic aid and disaster relief aid for the hurricane seasons. I want to be 100 percent clear as I close, for the sake of American national security, American existence, and the American future, we must in the long run end this system that has grown up like a weed and strangled the American farmland and food production. Farmers want to farm for their products, not for a government check.

They want to be free from dependency and free to innovate. We know what happens when they are able to do that. They build and feed the greatest republic in the history of man, but when they aren't, well, we know the danger that we are in today, but that's why this supplemental is so important.

It provides a bridge and extends a hand to Americans who need it. It buys the nation the security that we need, and it buys us time to deconstruct and then reconstruct a new system, putting our farmers and ranchers first, and to restore the system that originally made America great. For our farmers, the defense of American freedom continues.

They only ask to be free to fight. Thank you so much.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME), CHAIRWOMAN, APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Thank you for your testimony. We will now begin with questions for our witnesses. As you can see, we have a very full attendance of committee members today, so I would ask that all of our colleagues to please keep track of the clock and stay within the allotted five-minute question time.

With that, let me begin. Secretary Hegseth, General Caine, members on both sides of the aisle have questions about the authorization strategy, objectives, and conduct of operations in the Middle East. Regardless of our differing views, the fact remains that there are must-pay bills and urgent requirements facing the Department that affect the ability of our military to deter and defend against potential aggression worldwide.

Portions of the supplemental requests go toward paying these bills and are necessary to restore readiness, repair or replace battle damage to aircraft, ships, or bases, and address urgent munitions challenges. I understand and am told that some military services face near-term solvency challenges. What will be the impact on our troops if additional funding is not provided?

Are there military exercises, for example, that are at risk of cancellation? What message would we be sending to the world, Secretary Hegseth, either you or General Caine?

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Chairwoman, I very much appreciate that question because it's connected to the real-world realities of this budget cycle. There is training right now and training in the future that would have to be curtailed if we do not get our budget needs met and met urgently. And yes, some of that has to do with the current budget cycle and how things come together.

But we are a department that for four years met funding shortfalls under the previous administration. It was not a priority to fund the Department of Defense under Joe Biden. It also took the munitions and a lot of the -- there were five supplementals out of this committee that took munitions one for one and sent them to Ukraine and had tried to replace them with the same bureaucratic process that was too slow and didn't replace them in real time.

And then there were threats that were ignored around the world. So you're looking at a lot of negligence and a lot of deferred maintenance that this department is having to catch up on. And so that's why I call this a generational investment.

It truly is. This is $1.5 trillion budget with this supplemental being part of it is how we catch up and get ahead and ensure in the process we're putting soldiers and sailors and airmen first, Marines first, guardians, that their pay increases, that the end strength increases that have gone up because recruiting is at historic levels, are fully funded. So rather than trying to play catch-up and make sure we're not losing training, we should be ahead of that curve.

And that's where we think $1.5 trillion can get us.

COLLINS: Thank you. Senator Cain --I keep calling you Senator -- General Cain, I'm going to ask you to respond for the record because in my remaining time, I do want to ask Secretary Rollins a question.

[15:35:00]

Secretary Rollins, as we heard from the previous panel, our country has many outstanding recovery needs from disasters and other related -- weather-related events over the past two years. As this chart shows, and this is a chart from your department, many have unmet weather-related agricultural losses. In Maine, many of our producers are struggling amid a combination of market volatility and disaster conditions last year, which included excessive rainfall in the spring, followed by a severe drought. They need relief.

Yet the administration's supplemental request does not include funding to address these recovery needs. It does have $1.1 billion to help Florida agricultural producers rebound from a severe freeze this past winter, but nothing for prior disasters in other states. Can you explain USDA's thinking behind focusing your request just on the 2026 freeze rather than on the 2025 disaster declarations that you made? ROLLINS: Yes, Senator, thank you for that question. Obviously, the discussions that went on over at OMB and with our teams continue, but what I will say is we are obviously 100 percent in support of any sort of disaster relief program for our farmers, whether it's hurricane, tornado, drought, freeze, et cetera. So, look forward to working with you on that and specifically understanding the larger context here that there's a lot of farmers, a lot of producers who are really hurting, not just in Florida and not just from the freeze.

So, it's important that we work together to solve for that.

COLLINS: Thank you. Senator Murray.

SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-WA), VICE CHAIRWOMAN, APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Thank you, Chair Collins. Secretary Hegseth, your department received $150 billion last year in the Republicans' Big Beautiful Bill. It also received a record $839 billion for fiscal year 2026, more money than you asked for last year.

Combined, that is a trillion-dollar budget for the year, and as I already mentioned, your department has yet to spend half of the reconciliation funds. Despite that, you are here today asking for tens of billions of dollars more for things that you've already asked for in your FY27 request or that have nothing to do with Iran. This administration has tried to sell this as an emergency request, but it may be better understood as an attempt to skirt the normal appropriations process.

Here are just a few of the things requested in this Iran supplemental. $800 million for the National Guard to patrol D.C. even longer, over $1 billion for the Army to patrol the southern border, which is DHS's job. $900 million to support the administration's illegal boat strikes in the Caribbean. Over $18 billion for munitions, which you've already requested in your FY27 budget request, and $1.7 billion to pay for your decision to recruit more people than the services need, which was not contemplated by the FY26 funding bill Congress recently passed.

Now, you've already submitted a reprogramming request on this that our subcommittee is considering now, which really underscores the point I made in my opening remarks that the problem is not a lack of money, but poor planning. So, I'll be blunt. The truth is your request does not make a lot of sense.

So, let me ask you a simple question. Why exactly are billions of dollars more for the National Guard and this administration's illegal strikes in the Caribbean urgently needed for the Iran War?

HEGSETH: Well, Senator, I wouldn't, of course, agree with your characterization, but why this kind of spending is needed is because of the gross negligence and neglect of the Biden administration inside our department. Ran it like a bureaucracy, abandoned our strength posture around the world, so we're having to re-establish deterrence. Just, you mentioned the N-strength numbers, and I will acknowledge that we are ahead of schedule on N-strength in recruiting.

8,000 in the Navy, 6,000 in the Army, 4,000 in the Air Force, because under President Trump, there's been record and historic over 30-year recruiting records inside our department since he won the election because the American people didn't want to sign up for what Joe Biden was providing our military.

MURRAY: Well, let me explain --

HEGSETH: -- And they want to sign up for what President Trump is doing in his leadership, and so those are good problems to have that we need to fund and a reflection of momentum, and this budget will allow us to continue the kind of momentum that gets us ahead.

MURRAY: My point is that a lot of this request does not feel like an emergency and let me move on.

[15:40:00]

Secretary Hegseth, like most Americans, I've had a lot of trouble following this administration's contradictory statements about the war. On April 8th, you said, and I quote, their missile program is functionally destroyed, launchers, production facilities, and existing stockpiles depleted and decimated and almost completely ineffective. Mr. Secretary, Iran has been firing at U.S. military bases in the region and its ships for the last week. How is it possible if their capabilities were, quote, functionally destroyed three months earlier, as you claimed, for them to be doing this now?

HEGSETH: Well, Senator, Iran is at the weakest point militarily it has ever been in in the past decade, certainly maybe in 47 years, as they've gathered effectively a terror army. And that terror army was built to try to create conventional capabilities to defend against a pursuit of nuclear weapons, which meant thousands of ballistics missiles, many of which we have destroyed, others of which they have put inside facilities and hidden in underground facilities. That's what terror regimes would do.

So I acknowledge they still have capabilities, no doubt. But the amount of damage that we've done to them over the course of these series of operations has put them in the worst place they've ever been.

MURRAY: OK, well, let me move on. On May 5th, you claimed that Iran doesn't control the Strait. And you said that there was a, quote, powerful red, white and blue dome over the Strait.

If that was true, how did Iran shrink ship traffic in the Strait to a trickle again last week?

HEGSETH: Well, we pushed almost, I believe, between 400 and 500 million barrels of oil under the nose of Iran over the course of Project Freedom, which went underground, which I acknowledged after we did so covertly because it was more effective to do so quietly than to do so publicly. So we've been in control of moving traffic through there for quite some time. But will they retain the ability to recklessly shoot at commercial shipping?

And that's what happened. We had a ceasefire and then they shot at commercial shipping.

MURRAY: Well, you also said at the same press conference, and I'm going to quote you, you urged Iran to, quote, let innocent ships pass freely. These international waters belong to all nations, not to Iran to tax, toll or control. Last week, President Trump said the U.S. would charge a 20 percent toll to each ship to pass through the state. So based on your opposition to tolls, did you talk to the president out of that idea or did someone else?

HEGSETH: No, Iran's not charging tolls and they're shooting at ships right now.

MURRAY: But Trump said that he wanted to charge a 20 percent toll.

HEGSETH: We have a blockade right now of all Iranian ships and Iranian ports, and it's effective.

MURRAY: My time is up.

COLLINS: Senator Murkowski.

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): Thank you, Madam Chairman. And thank you all for being here. Challenging, challenging times.

I think we all recognize that. Secretary Hegseth, I want to ask just specific to Iran authorization. The administration has made the case that the action in Iran falls under the president's Article 2 authorities.

And we can have disagreement, reasonable people can disagree about the boundaries of the presidential war powers and have for a long period of time. But I look at the war powers resolution and it's not ambiguous. It requires the president to terminate hostilities within 60 days, absent congressional authorization.

So hostilities began February 28th. May 1st, Congress was informed that hostilities had ended. But yet, despite the fact that hostilities had ended, we were still seeing sailors being fired upon.

Still activity. Then in June, MOU is signed to preserve the ceasefire while negotiations continue. That MOU has now collapsed. And we are seeing the resumed attacks in the Straits of Hormuz.

On July 10, the administration sends Congress a new war powers notification, effectively starting -- restarting, excuse me, the 60- day clock again. So I'm concerned about this sequence because you have a situation where the claim essentially allows the president to extinguish the war powers clock just at the moment that it becomes legally inconvenient through declaration of temporary ceasefire.

Then it's reset, avoiding the congressional authorization that the constitution requires and the war powers intends. So we had an opportunity in previous probations hearing for me to ask if you felt the administration had all the authority that it needed. You indicated at that time that no additional authority was not needed.

Is the administration still taking that position about needing no authorization from Congress at this time?

[15:45:00]

HEGSETH: Senator, I know there's a long, long-standing legal debate on this particular topic, but we certainly as a department take the -- share the position of the White House that we have all the authorities necessary at this moment.

MURKOWSKI: So let me just kind of do a follow on. In the Clinton administration, this is 1999, there was an operation that was launched, Operation Allied Force, NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia. There was not a prior congressional authorization that was sought.

President Clinton notified Congress under the War Powers Resolution and then sent, subsequent to that, sent Congress an emergency supplemental funding request. It was about $6 billion to cover the cost of Kosovo operations. Congress then passed a supplemental package that covered the president's request plus additional military funding, but Congress never passed a standalone authorization for use of military force in Kosovo.

When the War Powers Clock was set to run out then in May of 1999, the Clinton Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion holding that the supplemental appropriation itself, passed without any authorizing language, satisfied the War Powers Resolution requirement. So is the department looking to that or intending to rely on that same reasoning that funding alone can substitute for explicit congressional authorization?

HEGSETH: Senator, I would have to defer to our legal department and we'll get back to you with our views on that. But as of right now, we think standalone, Article II authorities exist for us to conduct this operation on behalf of the defense of the American people that the president has those authorities. And seeking this funding is important in pursuit of that and our $1.5 trillion budget. But I wouldn't connect the two without consulting with our legal folks first.

MURKOWSKI: In my remaining time, let me turn to you, Secretary Rollins. I appreciate that you have acknowledged that fishermen are farmers of the sea. I don't know whether you are aware whether any fishermen will be eligible for any of the supplemental funding.

They too have faced many of the same challenges that our farmers have with high fuel costs, the impact from tariffs, disasters that we have seen in the 15 seconds remaining. Any help for our fishermen?

ROLLINS: Well, I remember having the conversation with you when we were going through the process and my commitment to you and to Senator Collins and some of our others across the aisle was that it's time for USDA to recognize our fishermen as part of our farmers of the sea. That's never happened before. We now have an office at USDA focused on fishermen.

And so I think as you all move forward the supplemental, the conversation, obviously up to you all what that looks like, but very supportive of treating our fishermen similarly to the rest of our farmers. Thank you.

MURKOWSKI: Thank you, Madam Chair.

COLLINS: Thank you. Senator Durbin.

SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL): Thanks, Madam Chair. Mr. Secretary, I'd like to ask you to help me reconcile some numbers. It's my understanding that this whole supplemental funding request is $87.6 billion and most of the funding, $67 billion, is for the Department of Defense. Yet we are told the Department of Defense still has $75 billion in unobligated funding from last year's reconciliation package. Is that true?

HEGSETH: Roughly correct numbers, yes.

DURBIN: So you've left some change on the dresser before you prepared to come for this hearing. What's going to happen to that $75 billion?

HEGSETH: Well, that $75 billion, there's plans and designs on that, part of the rebuild of our military, which had to be undertaken. And so one Big Beautiful Bill gave us specific avenues, but I'd have to get you the exact numbers of what that is left to be allocated.

DURBIN: Does it have to do with the war in Iran?

HEGSETH: No, this is rebuilding our military from what was not funded in the past under the Biden administration. So this is from 2026, One Big Beautiful Bill, which helped move the President's priorities like Golden Dome for America, move away from all the woke priorities of what the Biden administration was pursuing, give us a chance to start cutting these deals on munitions, all the things that the President wanted us to focus on, shipbuilding, hypersonic. I mean, the Biden administration ignored hypersonic.

They just decided to pretend like that technology didn't exist and we shouldn't invest in it. They're our thing. I don't know what Lloyd Austin did for four years.

I really don't. The amount of neglect, --

DURBIN: Sir, he has questions about what you're doing now.

HEGSETH: -- the amount of stale thinking and bureaucracy, it was staggering when we took over. So one Big Beautiful Bill gave us a chance to get caught back up.

DURBIN: Let me interrupt your speech for a minute, Mr. Secretary. It's my turn to ask questions.

I've been listening patiently while you made your presentation. You estimated at one point that the cost of the war in Iran was $29 billion but then added a caveat that there was a replacement of munitions, for example.

[15:50:00]

Do you have a new estimate about what the war has cost us so far in this, the fifth month of the first year of this war in Iran?

HEGSETH: Senator, the estimate we have as of today is $37.5 billion.

DURBIN: And is the current activity, which we've been told about the exchange of fire back and forth in Iran, an indication that that number is going to go up in the months ahead?

HEGSETH: Some of that number captures additional O&M mill pay and other that would be anticipated through the fiscal year. So some of that anticipates what costs would be going out in the future as well.

DURBIN: So the new number you've given me is what?

HEGSETH: $37.5 billion, Senator.

DURBIN: And that represents the cost of the war through what period of time?

HEGSETH: Through now for certain aspects of it, but also mill pay, O&M, other anticipated costs through September 30th, Senator.

DURBIN: General Caine, let me ask you a question. I joined a group of senators, some are here, Senator Rounds, Senator Coons, Senator Shaheen, and met with President Zelenskyy in Turkey during the NATO summit. He was very explicit in terms of what he needed to win.

He feels the momentum in Ukraine is moving to his side, that he is putting a foot forward instead of back. Is that your feeling?

GEN. DAN CAINE, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: Sir, I think the pressure that Ukraine is putting on Russia is substantive at this point.

DURBIN: Do you acknowledge his request that we help them with air defenses as a high priority?

CAINE: Sir, I know he's made the request. Whether or not that moves forward is always a debate at our civilian leadership, but I'm aware of that request.

DURBIN: Are you aware of the fact that we appropriated, and the president signed into law, $400 billion of supplemental funding for Ukraine, including money for air defenses?

CAINE: I am, sir.

DURBIN: Are you also aware the administration has informed us that that money will not be available in many aspects until the next president is in office?

CAINE: Sir, I'm not aware of that. My understanding was that that capital had been allocated, but I'll have to defer to my civilian leadership on that.

DURBIN: I'm sorry to tell you the pay plan tells us to be prepared to spend that money in fiscal year 29. The new president, whoever it may be, will make that decision. If you're talking about air defenses and the momentum on the side of Zelenskyy, what impact will it have if we cannot fund this for three years?

CAINE: Sir, I want to highlight that the incredible work that the Ukraine industrial base is doing is they scale their own capabilities. It ranges from their surface-to-air capabilities to their air-to-air capabilities. I'll note that recently we had the first air-to-air kill where a Ukrainian F-16 shot down a Russian fighter.

So I think their ability to scale their layered defense has come a long way over the past couple years with the help and assistance of many.

DURBIN: General, thank you for your service to the country, and I'm sorry for our losses. I believe 17 servicemen have given their lives in Iran so far, and hundreds have been injured. We should acknowledge that fact.

And let me also say, we're at a moment in history where we can win the war in Ukraine. That victory would be critically important for those people who have fought for more than four years against the odds and proven they can put Putin back on his heels. But instead of finding the money that they need now for air defenses, we're putting more money into this exchange with Iran, a war of choice which we never should have entered.

Thank you, General.

COLLINS: Senator Moran.

SEN. JERRY MORAN (R-KS): Chairwoman Collins, thank you very much. Let me first begin with just a statement to you, Secretary Rollins. Thank you for your leadership.

Thank you for your attention to disaster assistance, hugely significant and important in many states represented here, but across the country. And it is as challenging circumstances as I've seen farmers in my time and representing them in the United States Congress. And I appreciate my colleague, Senator Rounds, for making that case today.

I appreciate the efforts by Senator Bozeman, the chairman of the Ag Committee, and Senator Rounds and his vice chairman Shaheen for their efforts here on this committee for that effort.

Secretary Hegseth, let me ask you about your recent visit to the 101st Airborne Division. You saw the MV-75 Cheyenne. You saw it firsthand and heard from soldiers, as I understand it, about the next generation capabilities, how they will transform the way we fight.

The Cheyenne has broken through, it appears to me, in the acquisition bureaucracy to deliver a capability for our war fighting much faster than it otherwise would have happened.

[15:55:00]

As you look across acquisition, I mean, we're here talking about appropriations, but the ultimate success we'll have in defending our country is putting that money to work as quickly as possible. So as you look at acquisition, what would you tell me we learned from the Cheyenne? Is it a model how the department can -- it intends to field the next generation of capacity going forward?

What does the program need from this committee to meet both the schedule and the necessity of its capabilities?

HEGSETH: Senator, I appreciate the question. I think it's in part one of the untold stories of our department is how we've tried to revolutionize the speed and scale of new acquisitions and procurement. Some of it through munitions and ensuring that companies pay for building their own factories and their own assembly lines so that we're saving billions and billions as taxpayers while companies invest.

And when you invest in something with your own money, you want to see it succeed ahead of schedule and on time. Also opening the aperture so it's not just the prime contractors that are competing, but new entrants who make high cost and low cost capabilities. I think in particular on the Cheyenne and the Blackhawk and the replacement, the gap that some have identified could exist based on the hesitation on speed and replacement is -- exist because of an austerity mindset, again, that goes back to the Biden administration of divest to invest.

And so you end up divesting in certain systems like the Blackhawk before the next one is online, creating gaps for actual operators. And what we're funding in this supplemental and across this budget is the ability to do both. Make sure the systems we rely on, on the battlefield right now, are delivered and that newer entrants that we're going to need for long range fight to deliver -- to be more survivable in contested environments, which you're talking about. When I had a chance to see it, that the soldiers were proud to be in it because they felt like it would give them greater advantage in the future.

We need to accelerate the timelines of those and deliver them even more quickly. And when you allow new entrants with all the right incentives, those things happen. And it's happening in that.

MORAN: Will that take place -- I think you may have just said this -- but that will take place in this circumstance of the Cheyenne?

HEGSETH: I believe in this because of the policies of this administration, it is likely to do so just like the B-21, just like the F-47, just like so many other of our exquisite munitions that otherwise would have taken years and years to even get into development. We're moving those things left by, in some cases, years so that we get them in the hands of warfighters who would need them right now and not held up in bureaucracy in this town.

MORAN: Thank you, sir. Let me turn to you, General Caine. The department is requesting significant supplemental to address the ongoing operational demands.

Our adversaries are watching how we resource this moment. Beijing, Moscow, Tehran are all increasingly coordinating their activities and intelligence. In your judgment, do you believe our adversaries view this moment as an opportunity to exploit U.S. commitments elsewhere? And how does this supplemental ensure our deterrence posture and our commitments to allies remain credible in every theater all at once?

CAINE: Well, sir, thanks for the question. In my job, it's to look across the globe and look at the range of tradeoffs out there. But we are the strongest military in the world.

Our adversaries still fear America's ability to project power at the time and place of our choosing. There is no doubt that they are aligning, as I've said before. And I think this supplemental and whatever funding structure that Congress, working with the executive branch, decides to structure and give us the capital, we'll use that capital to ensure that we sustain that, sir.

MORAN: You're assuring us that this supplemental and further efforts will reduce the risks to our nation and its national securities?

CAINE: Yes, sir. I view this, and I've spoken to some of you on the phone leading up to this. I view this as future investments to buy down risk, similar to what I said Marshall thought through in those heady days in 1940, where the need to invest capital early to deliver scale is an opportunity that I hope we don't miss, Senator.

MORAN: General, thank you. Thank you, Chairwoman.

COLLINS: Senator Reed.

SEN. JACK REED (D-RI): Thank you, Madam Chairman. Secretary Rollins, I just want to re-enter a point that Senator Padilla made.

We have $10 billion in this request for Midwestern farmers who are suffering because of the interruption of fuel and fertilizers because of President Trump's war, unauthorized war. Yet, many states, blue states particularly, have submitted requests. Rhode Island has one.

February, we had the worst snowstorm in our recent history, and we've been denied by the President. In fact, if you look at the numbers, 20 percent of blue states seem to get approved and about 80 percent of red states. I'm making a point, not asking a question.

This is unfair. Thank you.

END