Hegseth and Caine Testify on Defense Department Fiscal 2027 Budget Before Senate Panel

WASHINGTON, May 12, 2026 — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Secretary Stephen Caine presented the Defense Department's fiscal 2027 budget request to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense on Tuesday.

The hearing covered the full scope of the Pentagon's spending plan, which funds 1.3 million active-duty service members, more than 800,000 National Guard and reserve personnel, and roughly 2 million civilian and contractor employees. Specific line items addressed aircraft, shipbuilding, missile defense, cyber operations and maintenance accounts for platforms operated by U.S. Central Command and other geographic combatant commands.

The testimony shifts the budget process from internal Pentagon formulation to formal congressional review. Lawmakers now hold the request and must produce a fiscal 2027 defense appropriations bill; prior budgets have typically required conference negotiations between House and Senate versions before final passage by Sept. 30 of the fiscal year.

Downstream effects include locked-in procurement timelines for new weapons systems once appropriations clear, mandatory obligation rates that trigger contract awards, and readiness benchmarks that combatant commanders must meet with allocated funds.

The Senate panel's markup schedule will dictate when service branches receive final spending authority, directly affecting training cycles, depot maintenance backlogs and overseas contingency operations funding for Central Command forces.

This marks the first detailed congressional presentation of the fiscal 2027 request since the Trump administration took office. The department previously submitted its fiscal 2026 budget under the prior administration on March 11, 2025; Congress ultimately passed a continuing resolution to avoid disruption before final appropriations were enacted.

The Senate Appropriations Committee has separately begun pre-markup briefings on defense-wide accounts that overlap with the request outlined in Tuesday's testimony.

The video record of the hearing was released by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.