The Iran war cost American taxpayers $37.5 billion so far. That was the number Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Sen. Dick Durbin at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, and it lands 50 percent above the $25 billion figure the Pentagon offered in late April, according to CBS News. The estimate anticipates spending through the end of the fiscal year on September 30.
That number matters because the administration is asking Congress for $87.6 billion in supplemental funding, the bulk of it directed at the campaign against Iran, PBS NewsHour reported. Hegseth, testifying alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine, called the request an “urgent, necessary injection of resources” for the department.
Why the Iran War Cost Estimate Keeps Climbing
In public, the Pentagon’s accounting of the war has moved in one direction. A defense official put the figure at roughly $25 billion in late April. The Pentagon comptroller raised it to $29 billion in May. Now Hegseth has settled on $37.5 billion, a figure that projects costs through September 30.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the committee’s top Democrat, called the May estimate “suspiciously low” at the time. Her skepticism has company. Two Democratic sources and a third person familiar with the matter told CBS News the real cost runs much higher, in part because the current estimate excludes military construction at American bases damaged by Iranian missile fire. NBC News has reported that the Defense Department’s internal estimate for the full cost of the war runs between $80 billion and $100 billion once base repairs, destroyed aircraft, and munitions replenishment are counted.
That gap between the public number and the internal one framed nearly every exchange in the hearing room.
What the $87.6 Billion Request Would Buy
Sent to Congress in June, the supplemental package breaks down into several large pieces:
- Munitions: roughly $21 billion to rebuild interceptor and precision weapon stocks
- Operational costs: $17.3 billion to sustain the deployed force
- Classified programs: $12.1 billion for efforts the Pentagon will not discuss in open session
- Farm aid and Ebola response: $11.1 billion in agricultural support plus funding to combat the outbreak in Africa, which is why Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins shared the witness table with Hegseth and Caine
Watch the munitions line. Five months of sustained air and missile defense operations have drawn down American interceptor stocks at a pace no planner projected before February. Replenishing those stockpiles is not optional spending. It is the difference between a credible deterrent in the Middle East and an empty magazine, a point that matters as much in Jerusalem as it does in Washington. Israel’s own defense against Iranian barrages has depended in part on American systems and American resupply, and the degradation of Iran’s launch capacity over eleven consecutive nights of strikes has been the most effective missile defense of all.
The Case Hegseth Made for Deterrence
Hegseth’s opening statement never directly mentioned the Iran war. He framed the request instead as an investment in preventing wars.
“We know the best way to create peace is to prepare for war, to deter it,” Hegseth said, restarting his remarks several times after protesters interrupted him. “That’s exactly what the Department of War is doing: building a force so capable that it would be absurd for anyone to challenge it.”
Supporters of the campaign point to what five months of pressure have accomplished. Iranian military infrastructure has been systematically degraded across seven cities and islands. The regime that spent decades funding Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis while promising Israel’s destruction now spends its nights defending its own territory. More than 50,000 American personnel are deployed across the region to sustain that tempo, as covered in our report on the seventh straight night of US strikes.
How Much Has the War Cost in American Lives?
Money is only part of the accounting. Seventeen US service members have been killed since the war began in February. Two soldiers died in an Iranian attack on Friday, and a third service member was killed in Iraq during a controlled explosion to destroy an Iranian drone. Nearly 100 Americans have been injured in Iranian strikes on bases across the Middle East this month alone, officials told CBS News.
Those losses shadowed the hearing. President Donald Trump has said Iran will be held responsible for the deaths, and the US answered with an expanded target list in its tenth and eleventh consecutive nights of strikes.
Senators Demand Straight Answers
Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, distilled the mood on both sides of the aisle into four words: “We need straight answers.”
Kennedy pressed Caine on what would happen if the United States halted operations and brought its forces home. Caine called it a hypothetical and a political calculation. Kennedy asked whether Iran would “put tolls” on the Strait of Hormuz. Another hypothetical, Caine said. The senator’s patience thinned. “This is serious as four heart attacks and a stroke,” Kennedy replied.
The sharpest clash came late in the hearing. Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan called the administration’s effort “an utter and complete failure to win this war.” Hegseth called the statement irresponsible and a smear on service members. Peters fired back.
“You, sir, are the failure,” Peters said, voice rising. “Not the men and women who are on that front line, not the men and women who hold up their honor with distinction. You don’t have a long-term plan to actually win this war. Win the war!”
Hegseth responded that Peters suffered from “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and accused Democrats of refusing to fund the troops.
The Dissenting View: A Forever War in the Making
Murray and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York gave the opposition case its fullest airing. Murray warned the United States could be sliding into “another forever war,” noting Trump had repeatedly promised a deal to end the fighting was near.
“The American people want to see a quick and strategic end to this war, not $70 billion of their tax dollars sent to keep it going,” Murray said in her opening remarks.
Gillibrand said military officials were “asking for unlimited money for bombs” while giving conflicting accounts of whether Iran’s nuclear sites were destroyed. “The American people don’t know who to believe or what to believe,” she said. “They just know they can’t afford their healthcare. They can’t afford their food. They can’t afford housing.”
Committee chair Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican, added her own critique, citing a New York Times report that Hegseth disproportionately blocked promotions of women and officers of color. Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have both crossed the aisle to support resolutions reining in the president’s war powers.
Can Republicans Pass the Money Through Reconciliation?
House Republicans want to move the Pentagon funds through budget reconciliation, the process that lets the majority party pass spending measures without minority votes. The Senate is a harder room.
Majority Leader John Thune has stayed noncommittal. Reconciliation “is very different in the House than it is in the Senate,” the South Dakota Republican said last week, pointing to the overall spending levels, possible offsets, and the Senate’s strict rules on what qualifies. “I’ve said all along that it’s an option. But it’s not, certainly, the only option.”
With Collins and Murkowski openly skeptical of a third reconciliation bill, the administration may need Democratic votes it spent Tuesday’s hearing antagonizing. The supplemental sits on top of the $1.5 trillion the Pentagon already requested for fiscal year 2027, a budget that assumes the Middle East mission continues well into next year.
Markets, Oil, and the Stakes for Israel
An Iran war cost of this size moves markets. Defense primes have rallied on munitions replenishment orders, while the price of sustained operations shows up in Treasury issuance and in oil. Brent crude topped $95 this week as the campaign entered its eleventh night and shipping through two critical chokepoints thinned, a dynamic we detail in our companion report on oil’s surge to six-week highs and our analysis of the permanent shift in Hormuz oil flows.
For Israel, the American commitment carries a message that outlasts any single appropriations fight. A regime that built its regional strategy on encircling the Jewish state with proxies has watched that architecture come apart under sustained allied pressure. The $37.5 billion question before Congress is whether to finish the job or let the pressure lapse. The answer will shape deterrence far beyond the Gulf.
