Senate Armed Services Committee Freezes 75% of Hegseth Travel Budget Over Withheld Strike Records

The Senate Armed Services Committee has embedded provisions in its fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act that would freeze 75% of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's office travel budget unless the Pentagon complies with more than a half-dozen outstanding congressional information requests. The Senate NDAA, which the committee advanced last week, conditions release of those funds on the Pentagon providing both chambers' armed services committees with an unredacted civilian harm investigation, including all supporting documents, for the Feb. 28 strike on Minab, Iran. The panel is also demanding unedited video footage of lethal strikes against designated terrorist organizations in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, a campaign that launched in early September. The committee approved the measure by an 18-9 vote.

The provisions escalate a congressionally imposed leverage mechanism that has so far failed to produce the requested materials. The fiscal year 2026 NDAA, signed into law by President Donald Trump, included bipartisan language threatening to withhold 25% of Hegseth's travel budget until he provided unedited boat-strike video to the House and Senate armed services committees, along with the orders authorizing those strikes. The new measure triples that withholding percentage, a signal that Congress has not received the information it demanded despite the earlier restriction. The committee linked Hegseth's travel funds to more than a half-dozen requests for information, including details on three U.S. air strikes against suspected Houthi military sites in April 2025 and an unspecified investigation by U.S. Special Operations Command in January, according to POLITICO.

The boat-strike disclosure dispute centers on Operation Southern Spear, a continuing military campaign in international waters. Since Sept. 2, the U.S. military has conducted a minimum of 64 strikes against what the administration describes as drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing at least 208 individuals the administration characterizes as narco-terrorists. The military was aware survivors remained in the water after the first Sept. 2 strike and carried out a follow-on strike; Pentagon officials told lawmakers in subsequent briefings that the second strike was executed to sink the vessel and remove a navigation hazard. The administration has relied on a classified Justice Department legal opinion to justify the use of lethal force, arguing the president may authorize deadly force against a broad range of cartels because they constitute an imminent threat to Americans. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have pressed the administration on the constitutional and legal basis for the campaign, arguing it requires congressional authorization to engage in hostilities with the cartels.

The Iran school bombing presents a parallel, and in some respects more legally fraught, oversight demand. The Feb. 28 strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab occurred while U.S. forces were targeting a neighboring Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facility; a preliminary internal investigation found that U.S. Central Command generated target coordinates using outdated information provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency. 156 civilians were killed in the attack, including 120 schoolchildren. The Pentagon has opened an Army Regulation 15-6 investigation, a commander-directed fact-finding inquiry, to determine what occurred and make recommendations for further action. A Defense Intelligence Agency spokesperson deferred comment on preliminary findings to the Pentagon, citing the ongoing investigation; U.S. Central Command similarly declined to comment. Forensic analysis of missile remnants published by Iranian state media, independently assessed by Amnesty International, identified the munition as consistent with a U.S.-manufactured Tomahawk cruise missile, which Amnesty noted is used exclusively by U.S. forces in the conflict. The Pentagon has not publicly confirmed U.S. responsibility. When asked about the probe while traveling in France, President Trump said a report could be forthcoming and directed reporters to Hegseth for further detail, noting the matter remains under investigation.

The legal framework underlying the Senate's leverage is rooted in Congress's constitutional power of the purse under Article I, Section 9, and its statutory oversight authorities codified in annual NDAA authorizations. Critics within Congress have noted that no declaration of war and no authorization for use of military force against Iran has been enacted, and that the Trump administration has not provided a clear legal rationale for the ongoing operations. The Senate bill also contains a separate provision requiring the Pentagon to notify Congress within five days whenever a three- or four-star general or admiral is fired or departs a position early, following Hegseth's removal of several senior military officers.

The provision faces a difficult legislative path. The House Armed Services Committee's competing NDAA does not include comparable language restricting Hegseth's travel budget, meaning the freeze would need to survive conference negotiations between the two chambers. Lawmakers in both chambers will debate the defense policy legislation over the coming months to develop a compromise version. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker reviewed the Sept. 2 double-tap episode and concluded there was no evidence the United States committed a war crime, though his panel has continued to press for full footage and the orders authorizing the mission. Whether the travel-budget mechanism survives that process will depend in part on whether the administration moves to satisfy the outstanding requests before a final bill reaches the president's desk.