As Trump sends more troops toward Iran, lawmakers want more answers 

As President Trump sends more troops toward Iran, mobilizing the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are unsatisfied with the amount of information provided in their briefings Wednesday, demanding the Pentagon be more forthcoming as the conflict nears its fifth week. 

The frustration about the lack of clarity comes as the White House signaled on Wednesday that the U.S. is close to achieving its goals against Iran but warned that strikes could ramp up if Tehran does not bow to Washington’s demands.

“We are very close to meeting the core objectives of Operation Epic Fury, and this military mission continues unabated,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House press briefing. 

House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) rebuked the Pentagon for not providing more substance about the U.S. military plans, including potential deployment of troops on the ground in Iran. 

“We want to know more about what’s going on, what the options are and why they’re being considered. And we’re just not getting enough answers on those questions.” Rogers, who backed Trump’s decision to strike Iran in late February, told reporters on Capitol Hill. 

When asked about Rogers’s comments, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), told reporters that he can “see why he might have said that.”

Defense officials — including Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Daniel Zimmerman; Richard Tilley, the principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict; along with Sean Choquette, and Chris Almont — separately briefed members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees on Wednesday. Both Republicans and Democrats voiced frustrations about the information presented. 

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told reporters he does not “feel better informed” about the prospect of troops on the ground in Iran. 

Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) told The Hill that potential deployment of troops on the ground was not discussed during the briefing and that munition stockpiles were touched upon.

“We discussed it broadly, and there’s no concerns right now,” he said about munitions, adding that it was a “good” briefing. 

But Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said “no” when asked if officials provided an update on the U.S. military’s stockpiles. 

“We’re asking questions about it,” Wicker told reporters in reference to the accumulation of troops in the Middle East. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he was “more fearful than ever” that the U.S. is on a path to putting troops on the ground in Iran and that “likely a lot more” service members are heading to the Central Command (Centcom) region right NOW?, arguing that Trump’s objectives in Iran cannot be attained without “physical presence.”

“Those objectives continue to be contradictory, confused, chaotic, changing by the day. Now, the Strait of Hormuz presents an additional challenge, in addition to destroying the missile capacity and stopping the terrorist activities, changing the regime, restraining the enrichment of uranium and securing it,” Blumenthal told reporters following the briefing. 

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who also attended the briefing, said information that lawmakers receive “helps, but naturally, we always want more.” 

“We’re trying to do our due diligence. Our oversight responsibilities are important, and as part of that, we continue to remind them that we expect to get good answers, and in some cases, they can do a very good job of that; in other cases, sometimes we ask for more,” Rounds told reporters. 

He added that senators are expecting to get more details on the cost of the war.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said in a social media post after the HASC briefing that lawmakers and the public were hearing different things.

“The justifications presented to the American public for the war in Iran were not the same military objectives we were briefed on today in the House Armed Services Committee. This gap is deeply troubling. The longer this war continues, the faster it will lose the support of Congress and the American people,” Mace said on social platform X. 

“No, I’m not satisfied,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) told The Hill about the information senators are getting about the military operation. 

Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.) told The Hill that “unfortunately, I got more information about what is going on in the Middle East by reading the Washington Post.”

“We should be provided more,” Blumenthal said about information shared during the classified sessions.

The Pentagon has ordered around 2,000 troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, including elements of the division’s headquarters, “some” division enablers and 1st Brigade Combat Team, to head to the Centcom area, bolstering the U.S. military’s buildup. It already includes over 50,000 U.S. service members in the region, and the deployment risks further escalating the conflict that the White House called a “resounding military triumph” on Wednesday.

Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) said there was no discussion on what the Army’s 82nd Airborne would be doing in the region. “We’re grateful for North Carolina’s contribution,” he told reporters.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said she lacks confidence that the administration has a clear off-ramp. 

During the briefing, defense officials discussed the defense supplemental that the Pentagon has been pitching to the White House and Congress, according to multiple senators, but the request for the measure has not been sent to Capitol Hill. 

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Wednesday that supplemental funding for the Pentagon due to strikes in Iran would “probably” be a part of second reconciliation bill, which would pass with only Republican support, and that he is “glad” the Senate is moving forward on such a proposal. 

Of the $200 billion supplemental funding proposal the Pentagon recently sent to the White House, Kaine said, “I don’t know where they’re going to land, but it was discussed.”

The U.S. military has struck more than 10,000 targets inside Iran and U.S. forces have wiped two-thirds of Tehran’s naval, missile and drone production sites, Centcom Commander Adm. Brad Cooper, said in an update on Wednesday.

Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) told reporters he is “pleased with the progress made” in the conflict. 

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said defense officials told senators that the U.S. military “made significant progress” on the four goals of the Trump administration in Iran. “No doubt it was accurate,” he added about the answers from officials. 

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) told reporters that the goals, plans and “any kind of timeline or exit” strategy are “unclear.”

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