Threatens to freeze Hegseth’s travel

Senate threatens to freeze Hegseth’s travel in bid for boat strike videos, Iran school strike probe

Major defense legislation approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee freezes three quarters of the Defense Secretary’s travel budget until Congress gets what it wants.

By Connor O'Brien and Leo Shane III

Senate lawmakers are threatening to freeze Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget if the Pentagon doesn’t turn over more details about the deadly bombing of an Iranian girls school in February and full videos of lethal strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in the waters off Latin America.

The provisions, tucked into the Senate Armed Services Committee’s defense policy bill, would withhold 75 percent of the Pentagon chief’s travel budget until lawmakers receive the documentation.

The move is an escalation from late last year, when lawmakers passed and President Donald Trump signed defense legislation that restricted a quarter of Hegseth’s travel budget in an effort to force the department to turn over the videos and fulfill other lingering requests. The renewed provisions suggest lawmakers still haven’t gotten the information they want.

It also signals continued bipartisan dissatisfaction with the Pentagon ignoring or slow-walking responses to congressional inquiries. The provisions are part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act approved last week by the Republican-led panel. Senate Armed Services leaders filed the bill on Tuesday.

Lawmakers, including some of Trump’s GOP allies, have complained Pentagon leadership has kept them in the dark on major national security decisions. They’ve underscored that dissatisfaction as they’ve demanded more information about the nascent Iran peace deal Trump and his team have been trying to sell in Washington.

The latest Senate bid to jam the Pentagon faces a long road to becoming law. Competing legislation approved by the House Armed Services Committee doesn’t include similar language. The funding freeze must survive negotiations between the two chambers over the next few months.

More than 200 individuals have been killed in U.S. boat strikes against suspected drug traffickers since September 2025. Congressional Democrats have repeatedly attacked the justification for the mission — Operation Southern Spear — as legally unsound and raised the possibility the strikes could amount to war crimes.

Lawmakers in particular were alarmed by revelations of a “double tap” strike in September that killed survivors of an initial attack against a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean Sea. Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), after reviewing the episode, concluded there was no evidence the U.S. committed a war crime with the attack.

Roughly 150 individuals — mostly children — were killed in the bombing of the elementary school in Minab on Feb. 28 in the opening hours of the U.S. assault on Iran. DOD officials for months have said the incident is under investigation but have not confirmed the damage was a result of errant American munitions.

In all, the panel linked Hegseth’s travel funds to more than a half-dozen requests for information. Senators are also demanding more information on three American air strikes against suspected Houthi military sites in April 2025 and an unspecified investigation by U.S. Special Operations Command in January.

Most Democrats opposed the $1.15 trillion defense bill over a lack of restraints on the Trump administration as it pursues the war against Iran and continued boat strikes. But the bill includes some bipartisan measures taking aim at Hegseth’s Pentagon tenure.

Senators approved a provision that requires the Pentagon to inform Congress within five days of the early departure or firing of a three- or four-star general or admiral. The move follows Hegseth’s firings of numerous senior officers without explanation. A similar measure was included in the House defense bill.