Hegseth Clashes With Dems as Pentagon Says Iran War Cost $25B

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (Reuters)
By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey

The Supreme Court today delivered another in a series of blows to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In a 6-3 decision, the court's conservatives ruled that a redrawn Louisiana congressional map that added a second majority Black district relief too heavily on race and was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

President Trump and Republicans hailed the ruling, which could affect the balance of power in Congress by allowing GOP-led states to eliminate Black and Latino electoral districts that lean Democratic. Democrats and civil rights groups called the decision a major setback for American democracy and the Supreme Court's credibility. The court "has effectively signed the death certificate of the Voting Rights Act, undoing decades of Black progress," the Congressional Black Caucus said in a statement. "Not since Jim Crow have we seen this level of systematic disenfranchisement of Black voters."

Here's what else is happening on a busy news day.

Hegseth Clashes With Dems as Pentagon Says Iran War Has Cost $25 Billion

The war with Iran has cost an estimated $25 billion since it began two months ago, a top Pentagon official told lawmakers today at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee - a session that also saw a combative Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, appearing before Congress for the first time since the Iran war began, clash repeatedly with Democrats and lash out at questions about the war.

Hegseth praised what he called the "incredible successes" of the first weeks of the war and touted President Trump's ability to negotiate a deal that ensures Iran won't have a nuclear weapon.

"The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans," Hegseth said in his opening remarks, defending the war effort and setting the tone for nearly five hours of testimony before any lawmakers started their questioning.

Democrats blasted Hegseth's leadership and criticized his unwillingness or inability to provide basic answers about the costs, objectives and endgame of the war in Iran. Hegseth was so frequently argumentative and dismissive of his questioners that Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the committee, urged the secretary to show more respect.

"Once I recognize a member, they have control of that five minutes," Rogers said. "The witness has to recognize it's their time."

Putting a number on the cost of war: Acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst III told lawmakers that the $25 billion cost estimate stems mostly from munitions and also includes operations, maintenance and equipment replacement. He said that the White House will put together a request for supplemental funding "once we have a full assessment of the cost of the conflict."

"I'm glad you answered that question, because we've been asking for a hell of a long time and no one's given us the number," said Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the committee.

Hurst later pledged to provide lawmakers with a more detailed breakdown of the $25 billion cost figure.

Democratic Rep. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire criticized what she described as a lack of details and accountability. "Here we are 60 days in to your war of choice in Iran and you can't give us an answer on the basic breakdown of American taxpayer dollars that have been spent?" she said.

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that 14 U.S. service members have died in the war.

Debating a historic defense budget request: The hearing's official purpose was to review the Pentagon's roughly $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2027, a 42% increase over a 2026 spending level that was already historically high.

"For the first time in nearly 40 years, we've been presented a budget that accounts for the true cost of American deterrence," House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers, an Alabama Republican, said in his opening remarks. "This budget fully funds both sustainment and modernization."

Rogers said that the president's budget request would get defense spending back to 4.5% of gross domestic product. "That's where we need to be if we want to truly deter conflict," Rogers said.

The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, questioned the size of the request and the fiscal propriety of providing that boost to the Pentagon.

"The problem is we have a $40 trillion debt and we insist on cutting taxes for absolutely everybody, so we reduce the amount of revenue that is available," Smith said. "We also have to have a national security strategy that lives within a sound fiscal picture. Most experts would say that the most profound threat to our national security right now is exactly that - is our fiscal picture. How are we going to continue to be able to afford to fund the things we need to fund as we run the debt ever higher? The other thing worth worrying about is the Pentagon has not yet passed an audit. If we give them what is roughly a 50- to 60-percent increase, is that money going to be well spent? We have every reason to doubt that."

Concerns about military stockpiles: A recent analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and highlighted at CNN found that the military has used at least 45% of its Precision Strike Missiles, at least half of its stockpile of THAAD missiles and almost half of its Patriot interceptor missiles. "The diminished munitions stockpiles have created a near-term risk," the CSIS report said. "A war against a capable peer competitor like China will consume munitions at greater rates than in this war. Prewar inventories were already insufficient; the levels today will constrain U.S. operations should a future conflict arise."

What's next: The war is reaching a potentially important 60-day mark given that the 1973 War Powers Resolution sets that milestone as the point at which a president can ask Congress for a 30-day extension for the use of military force or lawmakers can vote on authorizing the war.

Trump told Axios today that he rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end a U.S. blockade while postponing talks on Iran's nuclear program. The president also posted an AI-generated image of himself wearing aviator sunglasses and holding a gun below the words: "NO MORE MR. NICE GUY."

Powell Says He'll Stay on Fed Board; Bank Holds Rates Steady

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that he plans to remain on the board of the central bank as a governor for an indeterminate period of time once he steps down as leader on May 15. Powell cited concerns about the Trump administration's legal attacks against the institution. Fed leaders have traditionally retired from the bank once their terms as chair ended; Powell's tenure as a governor on the board runs until January 2028.

The Trump administration opened an investigation last fall into Powell's management of a construction project at the Fed, and the move was widely seen as an unprecedented effort to pressure Powell into cutting interest rates, as President Trump has repeatedly demanded. That investigation was recently dropped by the Justice Department and transferred to an inspector general, but Powell said he remains concerned about the lingering threat of improper interference.

"I worry that these attacks are battering the institution and putting at risk the thing that really matters to the public, which is the ability to conduct monetary policy without taking into consideration political factors," Powell told reporters at his last press conference as Fed chief. He said he would wait until the investigation into the renovations "is well and truly over with transparency and finality."

Powell said he would maintain a "low profile" as a governor, and vowed to support the new chair, Kevin Warsh, once he takes over. Warsh cleared a key hurdle to becoming the next Fed chief on Wednesday, when the Banking Committee approved his nomination and sent it to the full Senate for confirmation.

Rates hold steady: At the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting, the Fed announced that it is holding its benchmark interest rate in a range between 3.5% and 3.75%, keeping rates unchanged for the third meeting in a row.

The Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement that the U.S. economy continues to expand "at a solid pace," while inflation is "elevated." Overall, "[d]evelopments in the Middle East are contributing to a high level of uncertainty about the economic outlook," the FOMC said.

The vote was unusually divided, split 8-4, the most dissents since 1992, according to The Wall Street Journal. But 11 of the 12 committee members agreed that rates should remain where they are, with only recent Trump appointee Stephen Miran preferring a quarter-point cut. The other dissents were focused on the wording of the outlook, with three Fed presidents - Beth Hammack of Cleveland, Neel Kashkari of Minneapolis and Lorie Logan of Dallas - backing the rate decision but objecting to the retention of the "easing bias" in the FOMC outlook. (The bias lies in the use of the word "additional" in the FOMC statement: "In considering the extent and timing of additional adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate, the Committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.")

What the analysts are saying: The Fed's decision to hold steady on interest rates was widely expected, but Powell's statement that he plans to stay on for some time as a Fed governor after May 15 was not guaranteed. Some analysts think Powell's announcement, combined with the elevated level of dissent in Wednesday's decision, suggests that the potential for internal conflict at the Fed over policy is rising.

"Powell's final meeting as chair likely foreshadows what will be a period of discontent among members of the Federal Open Market Committee over the direction of policy," RSM Chief Economist Joseph Brusuelas said in a research note. "The debate is taking place amid a broadening and deepening supply shock through energy markets that carries significant risk of causing a persistent bout of inflation just as a new chair, who presumably has a bias toward rate cuts, is taking over."

Bob Michele of JPMorgan Asset Management told Bloomberg that the dissent from the three Fed presidents was less a rebellion against Powell than a signal to Warsh, saying 'We could be dissenting. Prepare for that.'"

Perhaps eying the potential for resistance to changes in policy under Warsh, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made it clear that he is not a fan of Powell's decision to stay on. "It's highly unusual for someone who says he's an institutionalist and cares about norms at the Fed," Bessent told Fox Business Wednesday. "This is a violation of all Federal Reserve norms."

Trump also offered a critique, writing on his social media platform: "Jerome 'Too Late' Powell wants to stay at the Fed because he can't get a job anywhere else - Nobody wants him."

Trump Admin Paying $855 Million to Cancel More Wind Farms

The Trump administration will pay $885 million to energy companies to cancel two wind farms that were planned for the waters off New York and California. The money will reimburse to companies for lease rights they purchased during the Biden administration.

The agreement involves Bluepoint Wind on the East Coast and Golden State Wind on the West Coast. Both companies have agreed not to pursue wind projects in the United States.

In March, the administration announced a similar plan to pay TotalEnergies $928 million to abandon wind farms under development off the coast of New York and North Carolina.

In both cases, the companies involved have pledged to invest the same amount in gas and oil projects. However, per The New York Times, documents from the Interior Department indicate that previous investments could count toward the pledges, raising questions about how much the companies will spend on gas and oil in the future.

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