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{"id":27182,"date":"2026-09-17T18:34:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T18:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/senate-democrats-press-hegseth-for-iran-war-price-tag\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T18:34:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T18:34:50","slug":"senate-democrats-press-hegseth-for-iran-war-price-tag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/senate-democrats-press-hegseth-for-iran-war-price-tag\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Democrats press Hegseth for Iran war price tag"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Forty-six members of the Senate Democratic caucus are demanding that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provide a detailed accounting of the Iran war\u2019s costs, arguing that the Pentagon has failed to explain how it has spent, and plans to spend, tens of billions of taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n<p>The letter, led by Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slotkin.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Letter-on-Iran-War-Cost-Transparency-to-Secretary-Hegseth_Slotkin.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">signed by every member<\/a> of the Senate Democratic caucus except Sen. John Fetterman. Independent Sens. Bernie Sanders and Angus King, who caucus with Democrats, were also included.<\/p>\n<p>The senators asked the Pentagon to provide a breakdown by Sept. 30 of all direct and indirect costs incurred to date in the conflict, as well as a breakdown of the administration\u2019s $67 billion supplemental request. The senators also sought a detailed plan for how $34 billion of leftover funds allocated to the Pentagon in Republicans\u2019 Big Beautiful Bill will be spent.<\/p>\n<p>The letter also requests that the department specify which portions of the requested funds are intended to reimburse past expenses, and which are meant for future operations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite asking for tens of billions of additional taxpayer dollars, you have so far failed to provide basic information on how this money has and will be spent,\u201d the senators wrote. \u201cCongress must have access to this information to carry out our oversight responsibilities. It is the bare minimum that any American would expect in balancing their own household budget.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The demand comes as the war enters its seventh month with no agreement to end the conflict. On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/15\/iran-war-cbo-01077533\" target=\"_blank\">said the conflict would reach<\/a> about $2 billion to $3 billion a month, noting that the first five months cost the U.S. $38 billion \u2014 the most comprehensive look at the conflict ahead of the midterm elections.<\/p>\n<p>Fetterman has repeatedly broken with his party over the conflict, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/02\/28\/iran-strike-democrats-split-message-00806051\" target=\"_blank\">supporting President Donald Trump\u2019s decision<\/a> to strike Iran in February and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/03\/02\/congress\/fetterman-needles-democrats-over-iran-strikes-opposition-00807140\" target=\"_blank\">voting against<\/a> a measure seeking to limit Trump\u2019s war powers. His distance from Democrats was underscored last week when he made a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/09\/fetterman-mccormick-rnc-dallas-video-01069763\" target=\"_blank\">surprise video appearance<\/a> at Trump\u2019s Republican midterm convention in Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>Fetterman\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forty-six members of the Senate Democratic caucus are demanding that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provide a detailed accounting of the Iran war\u2019s costs, arguing that the Pentagon has failed to explain how it has spent, and plans to spend, tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. The letter, led by Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, was signed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}