U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sidestepped a spending question on the Trump administration’s proposed $1 trillion FY 2026 defense budget to rail against former President Joe Biden, drawing criticism from Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro.
While lamenting the previous administration’s mismanagement of the nation’s shipbuilding projects during Tuesday’s hearing, Hegseth was interrupted by DeLauro, a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee.
“Please! I want your plan,” DeLauro said sharply. “I’ve had difficulty with the prior administration, and I don’t mind calling them out,” she added, before pressing Hegseth for specifics on the proposed budget.
“What is your plan for the future? Can we get that in writing and on paper so that we know where you’re going? Because we don’t have anything today,” she continued. “We have zip, nada in knowing where you’re going.”
“You could talk percentages. You could talk about whatever you want. But unless this committee see dollars and cents and where you’re going and what your plan is, then we may reconsider what you need to do to go forward. Give us the details,” DeLauro added.
Hegseth insisted he has the details and will provide them for the committee.
Elsewhere in the hearing, Hegseth defended the nearly $1 trillion proposal as “a historic level of funding for military readiness,” asserting that it prioritizes warfighters’ needs and marks the end of a period of underinvestment in the U.S. military.
Originally published on Latin Times
