Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker will soon hold the first hearing on the Iran war, with testimony from senior Pentagon officials, CNN reported.
Details such as when and who will appear have not yet been decided.
Asked if he expected Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Cain to attend, Wicker told CNN: “I can’t give you that information yet, but I’m hoping to have a hearing with senior Defense Department officials.”
“Yes, this would be an oversight of the war itself,” he explained. “We will continue to monitor.”
Mr Wicker twice said he “hopes” there will be a public session, making it clear that no final decision has been made in this regard.
As the war with Iran approaches two weeks, President Donald Trump continues to make conflicting comments about when the war will end. And to date, the Republican-led Congress has not held public oversight hearings on the dispute, although several closed-door meetings have been held for lawmakers.
Top Hill Democrats have been calling for a hearing in recent days, and on Wednesday, Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski joined the chorus of calls from across the aisle.
Murkowski also warned that an emergency funding package for the war effort, expected to cost tens of billions of dollars, would be difficult to pass through Congress without public justification from the administration and hearings on Capitol Hill.
“There should definitely be a public hearing,” said Murkowski, the senior occupier. “I think the public should demand to know what the expectations are regarding the direction going forward.”
“Certainly, we have a role as Congress. … If we haven’t built the case for why we need to do more, it may be difficult to get the support we need. We want to make sure that the men and women who are being harmed get what they need, and I need to understand that.”
Earlier this week, a group of Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to President Donald Trump calling for a hearing with administration officials.
“Hearings with Cabinet-level witnesses have been a standard part of Congressional oversight throughout our nation’s history, including during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also in recent military conflicts. After all, our nation’s founders clearly recognized Congress’s role in matters of war as representatives of the American people,” the Democratic senators wrote.
