During a tense Senate Appropriations Committee budget hearing held on Capitol Hill Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a staggering new accounting of the financial costs of the ongoing U.S. war with Iran, revealing that expenditures to date have reached $37.5 billion. Contrary to assumptions that the figure would only cover destroyed or depleted military hardware, Hegseth clarified the total includes all operational expenses, from frontline troop provisions to logistics and support costs. The hearing was convened specifically to review two major administration defense funding requests: a $67 billion emergency supplemental war budget and a $1.5 trillion baseline military spending package for the 2027 fiscal year. Hegseth framed the additional war funding as an urgent, non-negotiable requirement for U.S. military operations, warning that failure to approve the request would leave the force facing catastrophic resource gaps. “Without these funds, we face critical shortfalls,” Hegseth testified under committee questioning. The disclosure immediately sparked fierce pushback from Democratic lawmakers, who have grown increasingly critical of what they call an unaccountable, escalating war of choice that lacks congressional authorization. Senate Majority Whip Patty Murray issued a stark warning that the conflict is on track to become another open-ended “forever war” that drains U.S. resources without a clear strategic goal. “This war is now spiraling out of control again,” Murray said, pointing out the contradiction between the Trump administration’s repeated claims that a peace deal is imminent and its request for tens of billions of additional war funding. “US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that ‘a deal is near, and the war will be over soon.’ But now, he’s asking for $70 billion more — and for us to just trust him it’ll all work out fine.” The sharp exchange comes as the Trump administration continues to ramp up military pressure on Iran, even as it gestures toward potential ceasefire negotiations. President Trump told reporters at the White House Tuesday that Iran is “desperately” seeking talks to end the conflict, even as U.S. forces continue daily offensive strikes across Iranian territory with no signs of de-escalation. “We’re not finished,” Trump said, dismissing any talk of a premature U.S. withdrawal. “We’re not leaving.” The president also confirmed that the U.S. military is preparing a potential major strike on Pickaxe Mountain, a heavily fortified underground facility that U.S. intelligence claims Iran has repurposed to house centrifuge equipment for nuclear fuel production and its stockpiles of enriched uranium. In a move that drew significant scrutiny, Trump attempted to frame the U.S. casualty toll from the Iran war as remarkably low compared to past U.S. military conflicts. He noted that 17 U.S. service members have been killed in the Iran campaign to date, contrasting that figure with zero U.S. troop deaths during the 2025 operation to remove Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from power. For context, he cited higher death tolls from prior conflicts: roughly 2,000 deaths in Afghanistan, 4,600 in Iraq, 58,220 in Vietnam, and 36,574 in the Korean War. But the administration’s casualty accounting has faced widespread skepticism from lawmakers across the political spectrum, who accuse the White House and Pentagon of withholding full casualty data under the vague guise of protecting operational security. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued that the collapse of a tentative ceasefire earlier this year, paired with the ongoing escalation of fighting, has left U.S. troops bearing the brunt of a conflict that the American public is not being fully informed about. “The ceasefire collapsed. The war is escalating. American troops are paying the price. Iran knew it attacked our bases. The Pentagon knew our troops were wounded. The only people kept in the dark were the American people,” Schumer said. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine went further, emphasizing that Congress has already formally taken the position that the Trump administration’s war is illegal under the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress — not the executive branch — the sole power to declare war. Kaine pointed out that this position was endorsed by both houses of Congress, which at the time of the vote held Republican majority leadership, yet the president has ignored the congressional resolution. “You better have a really good answer for that question. And as of right now, this war of choice that Donald Trump started, he cannot answer that question. Congress has definitively declared — both houses — that this war is illegal. Only we, in the Constitution, have that power. The president is ignoring us, even though that declaration was made by two Republican majority houses,” Kaine said. Beyond the political and human costs, the ongoing conflict has already roiled global energy markets, with oil prices rising sharply this week as investors price in risks to key transit chokepoints. On Tuesday, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude traded between $81 and $85 per barrel, while Brent crude futures closed above the $90 per barrel mark for the first time since June 11, a jump that will likely translate to higher fuel prices for consumers worldwide. During his testimony, Hegseth sought to reassure markets that the U.S. military has secured key oil shipping lanes in the region, noting that U.S. forces have taken the lead on escorting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil transit chokepoint. He claimed that the U.S. has effectively controlled commercial traffic through the strait for an extended period, telling the committee that under the U.S.-led “Project Freedom” security initiative, between 400 million and 500 million barrels of oil have been shipped through the strait in full view of Iranian forces without incident. The president also addressed growing concerns over threats from Yemeni Houthi forces to block oil shipping through the Red Sea, a route that Saudi Arabia has increasingly used as an alternative export corridor to avoid tensions in the Gulf. Trump dismissed the threat, telling reporters that if the Houthis follow through on their promise to block transit, the U.S. will respond with military force. “If there is something like that, we’ll just have to take care of business,” Trump said.