Senators Threaten to Freeze Pete Hegseth’s Travel Budget Over School Bombing Documents

(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

Senate lawmakers are seeking to withhold most of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’stravel budget unless the Pentagon turns over information related to several military operations, including a February bombing in Iran that killed roughly 150 people, according to a Wednesday report from Politico.

The provision is included in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which was approved by the Republican-led group last week. It would freeze 75% of Hegseth’s travel funding until the Defense Department complies with the congressional requests.

Among the materials lawmakers are seeking are documents related to a Feb. 28 strike on an elementary school in Minab, Iran. Approximately 150 people were killed in the attack at the beginning of the U.S. conflict in the area, most of them children. Defense Department officials have maintained that the incident remains under investigation and have not publicly confirmed that American munitions were responsible.

The legislation would also require the Pentagon to provide lawmakers with full video footage from U.S. strikes targeting suspected drug-smuggling vessels in waters off Latin America. As Politiconotes, more than 200 people have been killed in those operations since September 2025.

The 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 leaves a position early, following Hegseth’s dismissal of several senior military officers in recent months.

The Senate effort is an escalation from a similar measure enacted last year, when Congress restricted a smaller share of Hegseth’s travel budget in an attempt to get information. This new measure suggests, according to Politico, that “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,” wrote the outlet’s Connor O’Brienand Leo Shane III.

However, as they explain, the House Armed Services Committee’s version of the defense bill does not contain the same travel-budget restrictions, meaning the issue would need to survive negotiations between the two chambers before reaching President Donald Trump’sdesk.

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