00:02The price tag for the war in Iran just got a lot bigger.
00:06Defense Secretary Pete Hagsworth told Senators Tuesday the conflict has now cost an estimated $37.5 billion,
00:14up roughly $12 billion from the Pentagon's last public estimate just a few months ago.
00:20Lawmakers wanted to know whether that number is likely to keep climbing,
00:23especially as fighting between the U.S. and Iran continues.
00:26Do you have a new estimate about what the war has cost us so far in this,
00:31the fifth month of the first year of this war in Iran?
00:35Senator, the estimate we have as of today is $37.5 billion.
00:39And is the current activity, which we have been told about,
00:43the exchange of fire back and forth in Iran,
00:46an indication that that number is going to go up in the months ahead?
00:50Some of that number captures additional O&M, mill pay,
00:53and other that would be anticipated through the fiscal year.
00:56So some of that anticipates what costs would be going out in the future as well.
00:59So the new number you've given me is what?
01:02$37.5 billion.
01:04And that represents the cost of the war through what period of time?
01:08Through now for certain aspects of it,
01:11but also mill pay, O&M, other anticipated costs through September 30th.
01:16The hearing at times turned tense.
01:19When Hegseth blamed the Biden administration for the Pentagon's growing funding request,
01:23Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed fired back.
01:27We had U.S. boats that surrendered to Iranian ships under the Biden administration.
01:31So their Navy was effective in expeditial ways in the past.
01:34Listen, we're talking about the war you started,
01:36not a situation in which oil was flowing freely.
01:40There was no conflict.
01:41We weren't losing personnel as a result of Iranian actions.
01:46So your fallback to the Biden administration is just a very, very obvious excuse
01:55for what I think is probably, as you described so often, gross negligence.
02:00Hegseth was interrupted multiple times by anti-war protesters.
02:04The supplemental funding request is not a substitute.
02:19Earlier in the day, Hegseth appeared alongside President Trump in the Oval Office,
02:24where the president dismissed the idea of direct talks with Tehran for now.
02:28I will tell you, they want to desperately meet.
02:31And until they're ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest in even.
02:36The administration is also asking Congress to approve roughly $70 billion
02:40in additional emergency military funding,
02:43saying the money is needed to sustain operations, replenish weapons,
02:47and prepare for what could become a much longer conflict.
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