Senators seek to block Hegseth travel funds until Pentagon releases report on Iran school strike
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators try to block Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth The Pentagon will provide travel funds until lawmakers submit overdue reports, including an investigation into a fatal incident. strike at a primary school At the beginning of the year in Iran US-Israel war.
According to the annual defense authorization bill, I applied this weekMuch of the defense department’s travel fund, including the Feb. 28, 2026 strike on the Minab school, may not be spent until Hegseth submits “uncorrected civilian harm investigations.” Authorities initially said the United States was responsible for the attack. outdated intelligence.
Congress, which oversees the Pentagon, has not yet received the Department of Defense’s report on the investigation. It is thought to have been completed last month.
Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that this year’s annual defense package “forces the Secretary to be more accountable to Congress and will prevent many of the mistakes of the past from being repeated in the future.”
The strike in primary schools became the breaking point
bomb attack on primary school More than 165 people, most of them children, were killed on the campus adjacent to the Revolutionary Guard base on the first day of the US war against Iran. It quickly became the focal point of the conflict.
Old intelligence likely led the United States to carry out the missile strike, according to people familiar with the matter. Preliminary findings in March. If so, this would be among the highest civilian casualties caused by American military operations in the past two decades.
Senators from both parties included new provisions blocking Hegseth’s travel funds into the National Defense Authorization Act to ensure the investigation was released.
No more than 25 percent of the defense secretary’s travel funds can be spent until he submits investigations “including all relevant supporting documentation” into various incidents that harm civilians, the Senate bill text said.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Senators also demand video of boat attacks near Venezuela
Senators are also trying to withhold Hegseth’s travel funding until the Pentagon releases “unedited video” of the incident. USA attacked boats allegedly involved in drug smuggling near Venezuela.
Pentagon organized an operation month-long campaign At least 211 people have died so far in attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean. Many of the attacks were recorded on video, which the ministry publicized by posting selected footage on social media.
In at least one example, Survivors were killed in follow-up attacksAccording to experts, this situation military law and rules of engagement. Lawmakers had pressed for such a video to be included in last year’s defense package.
MPs also want three more investigations into a series of attacks in Yemen in April 2025. These were conducted during the US military’s campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels who were attacking merchant shipping in the Red Sea.
The list of requested reviews includes: attack a port At least 70 dead and more than 170 injured remain Strike in the neighborhood in Sana’aAt least four people were killed and 16 people were injured in an attack on a house in the rebel-controlled capital of Yemen.
Casualty figures for both were provided by the Houthis.
At the time, US Central Command did not answer questions about the attacks in Yemen. After the port attack, it was stated that “there was no intention to harm the Yemeni people.” Central Command argued that the purpose of this was to “eliminate this fuel source for Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of the illicit revenue that has funded the Houthis’ efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years.”
Senators conduct oversight as part of comprehensive defense bill
The reports requested from the Pentagon will be presented to the Armed Services committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The directive comes as part of the annual defense bill, a vast 1,500-page document that sets out next year’s policies. The package is being compiled by both parties: Republicans, who hold the majority in the Senate, and Democrats, who are in the minority.
This is one of the rare bipartisan measures that almost always gets approved by Congress.
The Senate Armed Services Committee advanced the measure last week and it has now been presented to the full Senate for a vote.
