{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.slotkin.senate.gov/2026/08/24/peters-slotkin-press-armed-services-republicans-for-oversight-on-troops-serving-extended-deployments-in-iran/", "Peters, Slotkin Press\u00a0Armed Services Republicans for Oversight on Troops Serving Extended Deployments in Iran", "2026-08-24", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "Senate", "MI", "Elissa Slotkin", "S001208", "www.slotkin.senate.gov", "slotkin", "https://www.slotkin.senate.gov/newsroom/", "scraper", "SASC Democrats hold Administration accountable for the conditions it has allowed to develop that have left troops stranded indefinitely\n\nWASHINGTON D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), alongside U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and fellow Senate Armed Services Committee Democrats, called on Chairman Roger Wicker to hold a hearing on the Trump Administration\u2019s failure to support troops who are currently experiencing indefinite extended deployments tied to the Administration\u2019s war in Iran. The effort comes after reports of dwindling supplies and deteriorating conditions aboard ships like the USS Abraham Lincoln and at bases across the region.\n\n\u201cThe toll this unauthorized, disastrous war is taking on our troops is unconscionable,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cTroops are suffering because of this Administration\u2019s inability to end this war or make the environment safe enough for our servicemembers to be delivered the food, medication or supplies they need.\u201d\n\nThe Senators pointed to mounting evidence that extended deployments with no end in sight are taking a serious physical, emotional, and mental toll on servicemembers, and said the American people and military families deserve honest answers.\n\n\u201cMilitary families and the American people deserve answers about when our heroes will come home and how DoD plans to restore military readiness that has been drained by this war,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cSupply shortages and unjustified extended deployments also have a real impact on our ability to recruit and retain our servicemembers \u2013 why would anyone sign up to fight when they fear they will be exploited and left without supplies, recourse or support? Not only do we owe our troops the bare minimum respect and support they deserve, but it is a recruitment and retention imperative.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe stakes couldn\u2019t be higher. The longer this Administration fails to articulate a plan to end this disastrous war, the longer our brave servicemembers will pay the price.\u201d\n\nThe Senators also called for the Committee to examine the conditions driving down morale, the strain on military families struggling to make ends meet, and the Administration\u2019s plan for ending the extended deployments tied to the war.\n\nRead the full letter below:\n\nDear Chairman Wicker:\n\nWe request that you convene a public Armed Services Committee hearing with Department of Defense (DoD) leadership regarding the poor planning and mismanagement of extended deployments to support Iran operations and the impact on our troops. Recent reports of sailors suffering from severe mental health issues amid deteriorating conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln have only added to a disturbing pattern of failures to adequately plan and support our troops, who have been away from their families indefinitely as the Iran War drags on.\n\nOn August 11, Military Times reported that multiple sailors on board the USS Abraham Lincoln currently supporting Iran operations attempted to jump overboard, a heartbreaking decision in effort to escape the mental health toll of an extended deployment that was planned to end in May but is now at 9 months and counting. Horrifying messages from military families described other poor conditions onboard the Lincoln, including food rationing, rotten meals, shortages of supplies like water and soap, overflowing toilets, broken facilities and disrupted mail delivery. It took nine months for the Navy to relieve the Lincoln with the USS George Washington, after conditions had reached such severity that military families directly confronted the Acting Secretary of the Navy. This has revealed the real impact of unplanned deployment extensions on our ability to maintain and logistically support our ships in a contested environment.\n\nThis is not the first time during this war that we have seen the consequences of extended deployments onboard an aircraft carrier or even other ships. Sailors on the USS Ford experienced hundreds of broken toilets and significant damage from a non-combat fire that injured multiple sailors and affected 100 sleeping berths and forced it to redirect to Greece for emergency repair. After this emergency repair, the Ford was again sent back to the Red Sea to support Iran operations \u2013 eventually completing 11 months of deployment, even though the Navy tries to limit deployments to seven months. Military families of servicemembers on board the multiple ships as part of the Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs) in the region have reported emotional and financial strain from the unplanned extensions, struggling to balance work and childcare and caught in limbo with disrupted plans every time orders are extended.\n\nBoth the Lincoln and the Ford Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs) were redirected from their original missions to support President Trump\u2019s illegal wars of choice. The Lincoln originally deployed in November to conduct routine patrols in the Indo-Pacific, but was redirected to the Middle East in January to support the start of the Iran operations. The Ford ultimately served a whopping 11 months at sea \u2013 redirected three times from an original mission to support deterrence in Europe, to operations in the Caribbean Sea and against Venezuela, to Iran operations. This Administration has failed to explain why it has insisted on stretching our sailors in this way without adequate planning \u2013 let alone for unauthorized wars of choice.\n\nThe strain on our troops is not confined to the Navy. In fact, our offices and press have heard story after story of Soldiers and Airmen, including National Guardsmen and Reservists, seeing their deployments extended with uncertainty about when they will be relieved by other units and can return home to their families. Bases in the Middle East originally designed to support a specific footprint have been stretched to support a much larger scale of units now stationed there \u2013 and conditions are deteriorating as too many people meet too little space and supplies.\n\nThe toll this illegal, disastrous war is taking on our troops is unconscionable. Troops are suffering because of this Administration\u2019s inability to end this war or make the environment safe enough for our servicemembers to be delivered the food, medication or supplies they need.\n\nAll these developments strongly indicate a systemic failure of planning and adaptation by the Secretary of Defense and senior DoD leaders. It is appalling that in month seven of the Iran War, DoD still continues to fail to anticipate and plan for the second-order consequences of the President\u2019s choices to continue this war with no end.\n\nMilitary families and the American people deserve answers about when our heroes will come home and how DoD plans to restore military readiness that has been drained by this war. Supply shortages and unjustified extended deployments also have a real impact on our ability to recruit and retain our servicemembers \u2013 why would anyone sign up to fight when they fear they will be exploited and left without supplies, recourse or support? Not only do we owe our troops the bare minimum respect and support they deserve, but it is a recruitment and retention imperative.\n\nThe stakes couldn\u2019t be higher. The longer this Administration fails to articulate a plan to end this disastrous war, the longer our brave servicemembers will pay the price.\n\nWe request a public hearing to help Congress and the public better understand how we got here and how the Department will ensure it never happens again. We call on the Department to explain to Congress, military families and the American people how it assesses and justifies the readiness impacts of these extended deployments, how it plans for relief rotations and what accounts for the systemic failures to provide troops with the support they need to do the mission the President has illegally asked of them. Importantly, the Department must justify and detail exactly how it plans to sustain our troops in this war indefinitely \u2014 as the President\u2019s negotiations continue to fail.\n\nAs Members of this Committee, we take seriously our responsibility to make sure the U.S. military is properly led, well-resourced, supported and able to conduct its missions. We believe it is critical that we conduct public oversight to ensure that whenever we ask the military to answer the Nation\u2019s call, we will have their backs \u2013 not leave them stranded with no support. For these reasons, we urge the Committee to convene a hearing at the earliest opportunity to examine these issues directly with DoD leaders.\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-25T05:31:37Z", "2026-08-25T05:33:09Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.slotkin.senate.gov/2026/08/24/peters-slotkin-press-armed-services-republicans-for-oversight-on-troops-serving-extended-deployments-in-iran/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9702469687908888, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}