Pete Hegseth puts Iran war cost at $37.5bn so far

US defense secretary says Iran war costs $37.5bn so far, war powers vote urges Congress back into the loop, administration leans on Article II

US defense secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that the war in Iran has cost the United States $37.5bn so far, according to the Guardian’s live coverage. The figure surfaced as lawmakers pressed the Pentagon on the legal basis for continuing operations and on whether Congress would be asked to authorize the campaign.

The exchange lands after both chambers of Congress passed a war powers resolution urging the president to seek congressional authorization to continue military operations in Iran, the Guardian reports. That vote does not itself appropriate money, but it puts a procedural marker down: legislators are signalling they want the war’s continuation to be tied to a public vote rather than to briefings and after-the-fact funding requests.

In the hearing, Republican senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska asked Hegseth about the administration’s authority to proceed. Hegseth replied that the department believes “standalone Article II authorities exist” to conduct the operation for the defense of the American people, according to the Guardian. He did not directly answer whether the administration would treat approval of supplemental funding as a substitute for explicit congressional authorization.

That ambiguity matters because modern US wars are often financed the way they are justified: incrementally, with Congress asked to fund what is already underway. A war powers resolution, even if it stalls or is ignored, forces a different sequencing—authorization first, money second—at least on paper. The administration’s preference for an Article II rationale keeps the decision inside the executive branch, while the bill arrives later and is harder to disentangle from other budget priorities.

The $37.5bn figure also frames the conflict as a budget line competing with domestic spending fights now consuming Washington. Once a cost is attached, it becomes easier to test claims about limited, targeted operations against the scale of the logistics required to sustain them. It also gives lawmakers a number to cite when arguing that oversight should not be reduced to classified briefings.

Hegseth’s testimony did not settle whether Congress will be asked for authorization. It did, however, put a running total on the war in a public forum, with senators asking—on the record—who is meant to sign off.

The Pentagon’s answer on Tuesday was that the authority already exists, and the cost so far is $37.5bn.