Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, demanded a report by the Pentagon summarizing total war costs of Operation Epic Fury, or the Donald Trump administration and Israel’s combat operations in Iran.
“I will not support a blank check for this war of choice,” Reed said on the Senate floor March 11.
Reed sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to “share” his “deep concerns” on the war against Iran, mainly that the operation was launched without “gaining the consent of Congress,” but also that “the Department has not yet told Congress” the cost estimates for the operation. He asked Hegseth when he plans to submit a request to Congress for supplemental funding, “as this operation was not included in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget?”
“What are President Trump’s objectives? I have listened carefully to this administration, and their rationale has shifted constantly — from protecting Iranian protesters, to eliminating Iran’s nuclear program, to destroying its ballistic missile arsenal, to what now appears to be regime change,” Reed continued on the Senate floor. “President Trump declared last week that he wants no less than unconditional surrender and he should have a role in choosing Iran’s next leader. Those comments reveal a stunning failure to understand Iran and its history.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said similarly on X last week after a classified briefing on Epic Fury, calling the administration’s goals “incoherent and incomplete.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a media briefing Thursday, acknowledged the Pentagon could potentially ask Congress for $200 billion in supplemental funding to support the ongoing operation against Iran and replenish munitions used in the strike campaign, while noting the final requested figure “could move.”
Reed also addressed the “speculation” that there would be a special forces operation to seize Iran’s enriched uranium. “This would be exceedingly difficult and would require deploying hundreds of our forces deep into Iran at great peril,” he said. “Even if successful, such an operation would not change the government of Iran and, although dealing a serious setback to the Iranian nuclear program, would likely harden the fanatical approach of the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps].”
Reed also said “destroying Iran without a credible post-war plan” could “ironically” convince the regime that “acquiring a nuclear weapon is the ultimate path to avoiding President Trump’s unpredictable wrath.”
“I do not minimize the genuine threat that Iran’s nuclear program and missile arsenal represent to the United States and our allies,” Reed said. “The day the Iranian regime is replaced by a government that genuinely serves the Iranian people will be a good day for the world,But recall that President Trump ripped up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — a real diplomatic framework that was constraining Iran’s nuclear ambitions. He refused to negotiate a replacement.”
Reed added that just last month, “the Omani Foreign Minister, who served as a key intermediary between Washington and Tehran, reported that there had been significant progress in the ongoing negotiations just before these strikes began. The President broke the diplomatic solution and is now trying to bomb his way out of a crisis of his own making.”