The Pentagon is planning to maintain the National Guard’s federal mission in Washington, D.C., until Jan. 20, 2029, through the rest of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to two U.S. officials.

The plan is in its final stages and just requires Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s final approval. 

Both officials said they expect Hegseth to sign the plan, which was finalized late last year, as Trump has repeatedly characterized the Guard’s mission in D.C. as an enormous success.

“There are no announcements to make at this time,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement to ABC News, adding that the Defense Department is “committed to supporting the President’s mission to address the epidemic of crime in our Nation’s capital.”

Some 2,865 National Guard troops are currently deployed in D.C., according to National Guard data, all drawn from Republican-led states with the exception of local D.C. Guard units.

The force includes contingents from Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Oklahoma, with units rotating in and out of the District on staggered timelines. Some troops have maintained a near-continuous presence since last summer, while others — particularly those from out of state — cycle through on shorter deployments, one of the officials noted.

The National Guard’s mission, dubbed “Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful,” launched in August as part of a broader push by President Donald Trump to flood U.S. cities with guardsmen to assist law enforcement, a move that quickly drew legal and political scrutiny.

Troops were ultimately pulled back from cities like Los Angeles and Chicago after the U.S. Supreme Court determined the administration lacked sufficient justification for the deployments. But in Washington, the Guard operates under a distinct framework that grants the president broader latitude.

Guard troops have been a visible presence in the city’s relatively safe corridors, patrolling Metro rail stations, downtown D.C. and the National Mall. Most are armed with M17 pistols or M4 rifles. 

Guardsmen are also carrying out civic duties like picking up trash, tending to landscaping and scrubbing graffiti.

The deployment comes as the Guard balances competing demands at home and abroad. Units remain stretched across the Middle East amid the war with Iran. 

Three airmen from the Ohio Air National Guard’s 121st Air Refueling Wing were among six crew members killed on March 12 when their KC-135 Stratotanker crashed in western Iraq.

In November, two members of the Guard from West Virginia were shot the day before Thanksgiving while patrolling in Washington. Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her injuries, while Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe suffered a gunshot wound to the head and is recovering.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that the Pentagon will be asking Congress for more money to cover the Iran war, saying he wants to ensure current and future costs are covered “above and beyond.”

A senior administration official confirmed that a $200 billion request was sent from the Pentagon to the White House on Wednesday. The Washington Post first reported the request.

Multiple lawmakers said the White House has not yet submitted the request to Congress as of Thursday morning. Lawmakers remain deeply divided on President Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran.

The conflict began Feb. 28 after negotiations on its nuclear and ballistic missile program failed, and the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes. In its third week, the U.S. says it’s destroyed more than 7,800 military targets, 120 Iranian ships and 11 submarines.

Pentagon officials told a group of senators in a closed-door briefing earlier this month that the war in Iran cost at least $11.3 billion in its first six days.

When asked about the $200 billion request, Hegseth didn’t confirm the total, saying that the number “could move.”

“As far as $200 billion, I think that number could move. Obviously it takes, it takes money to kill bad guys,” Hegseth said in a news conference Thursday morning. “So we’re going back to Congress and our folks there to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future, ensure that our ammunition is — everything’s refilled, and not just refilled, but above and beyond.”

Wartime supplementals are used to ensure the military remains ready to handle other potential conflicts and to replenish stockpiles spent on the ongoing mission.

Asked about the $200 billion request on Thursday, Trump said “we’re asking for a lot of reasons beyond even what we’re talking about in Iran.”

“So we’re in very good shape, but we want to be in the best shape. The best shape we’ve ever been in,” Trump said.

He added that $200 billion request is “a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy top.”

House leadership has not received a formal defense supplemental request from the Trump administration, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Asked about the amount, Speaker Mike Johnson said Congress has a commitment to “adequately fund defense.”

“I’m sure it’s not a random number, so we’ll look at that,” Johnson said Thursday morning. “But obviously it’s a dangerous time in the world, and we have to adequately fund defense, and we have a commitment to do that.”

As of Wednesday night, several Senate appropriators, including Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, said they had not yet seen the request.

Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations committee, said she had not seen the funding request, and would need details to be provided.

Democrats will almost certainly require public hearings before they even consider voting in favor of the supplemental and even then, it would likely be difficult to convince enough of them to support a massive infusion of cash for the war.

“We have not seen that request, and I will tell you that this administration needs to tell Congress definitely what they’re doing and how long this is going to take. There is no goal here, and we’re not going to write them a blank check,” Murray said.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, told reporters on Thursday morning that to her knowledge the Pentagon has not made a request to Congress.

“What we have is a number that we have heard the White House presented to the Pentagon. So far as I know it has not been presented to us in Congress. So it needs to not only be presented, the amount, but also the rationale behind it,” Murkowski said.

She said there ought to be open hearings before a supplemental is voted on.  

“The world is feeling the impact of this war. So Congress has a role here and the administration is going to have to walk us through whether it’s $200 billion or some other iteration the supplemental will be,” Murkowski said. 

While many senators were cautious about the request that has yet to reach Congress, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said he is already on board, saying “I’d hate to be the senator that denied the request.”

“The price of letting Iran move forward in the way they were is far more costly. You know, nobody asked, ‘What did it cost to win World War II?’ You just had to win. So my view about the price tag here, the price tag I’m most concerned about is letting Iran get back in the game to do what they’ve been doing since 1979,” Graham said. “The money we spent, the lives that have been lost by not confronting this regime has been way too costly. So whatever it costs to finish this, is worth it.”

The money that has so far been spent to fund operations in Iran comes out of Pentagon funds already allocated by Congress. Congress has not yet approved any additional funding for the war with Iran.

The funding request also indicates plans for a longer war — after Trump has previously said the war would last four to five weeks. The president has also brushed off that timeline, saying “whatever it takes.”

ABC News’ Lauren Peller, John Parkinson, Lalee Ibssa, Nathan Lee and Ford McCracken contributed to this report.

Iranian attacks on significant energy infrastructure and refineries in several Gulf countries pushed oil and gas prices higher in volatile trading on Thursday.

Brent crude oil prices, a benchmark for global trading, climbed by about 6%, hitting $116 per barrel for contracts to purchase oil in May.

The benchmark for European gas also surged by about 15% after Iran on Wednesday released retaliatory strikes targeting energy sites in several Gulf countries.

An Iranian drone struck a Saudi Aramco refinery in Yanbu, on the Red Sea, on Thursday, according to the Saudi Ministry of Defense, which said the extent of the damage was being assessed. That refinery is a joint venture between Aramco and the U.S.-based Exxon Mobil Corp.

Kuwait also on Thursday said its Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery, which is run by the state-owned National Petroleum Company, had been struck by a drone. There was a “limited” fire at the facility, according to the official Kuwait News Agency.

Qatari authorities said on Wednesday that Iranian ballistic missile attacks caused fires and “extensive damage” at the Ras Laffan terminal, which carries about one-fifth of the global supply of liquid natural gas. Qatar Energy, which runs the terminal, has said on March 2 that it would bring liquefied natural gas production at Ras Laffan to a halt.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had issued warnings for several Gulf energy production sites, including the refinery in Yanbu, after Wednesday’s Israeli strikes on the South Pars Gas Field, the largest in Iran.

Those attacks added uncertainty to a market already on edge, as the overall conflict and the near-closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz by Iran has sent key energy prices higher.

The Dutch Title Transfer Facility, which is widely seen as the European benchmark for natural gas, saw forward-looking contracts for next month climb about 15% in midmorning trading on Thursday. Trading was volatile, and those contracts had registered intraday gains as high as about 30% in morning trading.

Since the conflict began on Feb. 28, with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Tehran, the TTF benchmark’s rate has about doubled. Intraday prices on Thursday hovered above about 60 euro per MWh, while those LNG contracts had traded below 30 euro per MWh between mid-November and mid-January.

Brent crude had been trading prior to the conflict near $70 a barrel. Prices has previously peaked at about $120 a barrel on March 9.

LONDON — British police have charged two men with spying on the U.K.’s Jewish community on behalf of Iran.

Iranian-British national Nematollah Shahsavani, 40, and 22-year-old Iranian citizen Alireza Farasati have been charged with engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service. Prosecutors said the country the charges relate to is Iran.

Frank Ferguson, head of counterterrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service, said the charge “relates to carrying out activities in the U.K. such as gathering information and undertaking reconnaissance of targets.”

Both suspects live in London and are due to make their first court appearance Thursday at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

The men were arrested March 6. Two other British-Iranian nationals arrested that day as part of the same investigation have been released without charge.

The head of Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service, Ken McCallum, said in October that more than 20 “potentially lethal Iran-backed plots” had been disrupted in the previous 12 months.

Iran launched a series of retaliatory strikes against the vital energy infrastructure in nearby Gulf states after Israel hit its largest gas field Wednesday — a “dangerous escalation” that deepened the crisis and sent oil prices surging.

In response to Israel’s initial strike, Iran issued evacuation orders for several energy assets in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, saying the facilities had become “direct and legitimate targets,” according to semi-official Mehr News Agency. 

“Previously, clear and repeated warnings were given to your rulers about entering this dangerous path and gambling with the fate of their nations,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement.

Both Qatar and the UAE sharply criticized Israel’s initial attack, with the Qatari foreign minister calling it a “dangerous & irresponsible step amid the current military escalation in the region,” in a social media post.

In a statement, the Qatari Foreign Ministry also condemned Iran’s attack, calling it a “dangerous escalation and a flagrant violation of the state’s sovereignty, as well as a direct threat to its national security and the stability of the region.”

Among the retaliatory strikes, Iran hit the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Ras Laffan in Qatar — the most serious attack on the country’s energy facilities since the start of the war.

President Donald Trump in a social media post late Wednesday night said neither the U.S. nor Qatar was aware Israel would attack the South Pars Gas Field and called for Israel to not do so again unless Iran continues attacking Qatar’s liquefied national gas facilities. 

“NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar,” Trump said. 

Trump said if Iran does so, the U.S. will respond and “massively blow up” the South Pars gas field.

“I do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran, but if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so,” Trump said in the post

The strikes caused fires and “extensive damage,” said Qatar Energy, the state-owned oil and gas company.

About a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas is ordinarily shipped from Ras Laffan, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

In a statement, the Qatari Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, calling it a “dangerous escalation.”

Later, energy facilities in Saudi Arabia were targeted by a barrage of missiles and drones, according to the Saudi Ministry of Defense.

Missiles also targeted the Habshan gas facilities in Abu Dhabi, according to the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The Ministry emphasized that this terrorist attack, which targeted the country’s infrastructure and oil facilities, represents a direct threat to the security and stability of the region and its people, as well as to global energy security.”

The attacks followed Iran’s vow to retaliate against some of the energy facilities of its Gulf state neighbors after Israel attacked the Iranian part of the South Pars gas field — the largest in the world and which Iran shares with Qatar.

The list of targets issued by Iran included Ras Laffan as well as others facilities that produce refined products like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel — but not crude oil.

The list of potential targets could impact over 1.25 million barrels per day of oil refining capacity in the region, well as natural gas production, according to Kpler’s lead oil analyst, Matt Smith. Global oil refining capacity was estimated at 103.5 million barrels per day in 2023, according to the EIA.

While the loss of output would amount to just over 1% of global refining capacity it could still have an impact on gas prices.

Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy said an attack at these refining facilities could have an even more significant impact on consumers at the pump than the loss of crude oil.

“This is clear escalation in response to Iranian gas infrastructure being targeted — it is the upping of the ante,” Smith added.

Following the strikes, oil in the U.S. was trading is up nearly 3% at $99 per barrel. Global oil was up about 5% at $108 a barrel.

Iran’s attacks on energy infrastructure comes as the Strait of Hormuz — the critical waterway off the southern coast of Iran that facilitates shipping for about 20% of oil consumed worldwide — remains essentially closed, choking the global oil supply.

Joe Kent, the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned Tuesday, is under criminal investigation for potentially leaking classified information, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. 

It is unclear what information might be involved in the investigation. The sources said the investigation started prior to his resignation. 

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday at its first meeting since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran drove up gasoline prices and risked a wider bout of inflation.

The central bank’s move marked the second consecutive time it has opted to maintain interest rates at current levels since the outset of 2026. Before that, the Fed cut interest rates a quarter-point three straight times. The decision on Wednesday matched market expectations.

“The implications of developments in the Middle East for the U.S. economy are uncertain,” the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a policymaking body at the Fed, said in a statement on Wednesday.

The FOMC issued a forecast projecting a one quarter-point interest rate cut over the remainder of 2026 and another quarter-point cut in 2027.

The 12-member board voted 11-1 to maintain the current level of interest rates. Stephen Miran, a former Trump administration official who recently joined the board, cast the lone dissenting vote. He called for a rate cut.

Elevated price increases have coincided with a slowdown of economic growth, threatening to intensify an economic double-whammy known as “stagflation,” which poses difficulty for the Fed.

Inflation stood at 2.8% in February, according to the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, the gauge preferred by the Fed. Price increases register nearly a percentage point higher than the Fed’s target rate of 2%.

“These elevated readings largely reflect inflation in the goods sector, which has been boosted by the effects of tariffs,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

“Near-term measures of inflation expectations have risen in recent weeks, likely reflecting the substantial rise in oil prices caused by the supply disruptions in the Middle East,” Powell added.

If the Fed opts to lower borrowing costs, it could spur growth but risk higher inflation. On the other hand, the choice to raise interest rates may slow price increases but raises the likelihood of a cooldown in economic performance.

The benchmark rate stands at a level between 3.5% and 3.75%. That figure marks a significant drop from a recent peak attained in 2023, but borrowing costs remain well above a 0% rate established at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A lackluster jobs report last week showed the U.S. economy lost 92,000 jobs in February, which marked a reversal of fortunes for the labor market and erased most of the job gains recorded in 2026.

The unemployment rate ticked up from 4.3% in January to 4.4% in February, the BLS said. Unemployment remains low by historical standards.

A revised government report last week on gross domestic product (GDP) showed the economy grew at a sluggish annualized pace of 0.7% over the final three months of 2025.

Those economic headwinds helped set the conditions before the outbreak of war with Iran, which spiked oil prices and risked price increases for a host of diesel-fuel transported goods.

U.S. crude oil prices rose to about $97 per barrel on Wednesday, marking a surge of more than 50% since a month earlier.

Since the military conflict began, U.S. gas prices have gone up 86 cents to an average of $3.84 per gallon as of Wednesday, according to AAA.

The rate decision on Wednesday marked the first such move since a federal judge blocked Justice Department subpoenas to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors after determining the government “produced essentially zero evidence” to support a criminal investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, according to an unsealed court opinion.

“A mountain of evidence suggests that the Government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning,” U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said in his opinion on Friday.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro blasted Boasberg as an “activist” judge and pledged to appeal his ruling.

ABC News’ Alexander Mallin, Allison Pecorin, and Jack Date contributed to this report.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard returns to Capitol Hill this week for an annual set of hearings on worldwide threats — her most significant public appearance in months and her clearest opportunity yet to address the intelligence picture surrounding the war in Iran.

Lawmakers are expected to press Gabbard on the administration’s handling of the Iran conflict, homeland security concerns, election integrity and the broader global threat environment at a moment of rising tension.

The hearings will also offer a rare extended look at an intelligence chief who has spent much of the past year largely out of public view. The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to hear from her on Wednesday, March 18, with the House hearing set for Thursday, March 19.

She heads into the hearings under fresh scrutiny after the resignation of Joe Kent, the administration’s top counterterrorism official, who stepped down Tuesday over his objections to the Iran war — the highest-profile administration official to resign publicly over the conflict.

An ODNI official told ABC News that Gabbard was not asked by the White House to fire Kent, pushing back on a report first aired by Fox News.

Kent’s resignation sharpened questions already hanging over the administration’s case for war — whether Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States.

In his resignation letter, Kent said he could not “in good conscience” support the war and argued that Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the nation, directly undercutting President Donald Trump’s repeated public justification for the conflict.

Trump has previously said Tehran posed an imminent threat and was “very nearly” in a position to strike.

Hours after Kent’s resignation became public, Gabbard moved to publicly back Trump’s authority to make that call.

In a post on X, she said the president, as commander in chief, is responsible for determining “what is and is not an imminent threat” and whether action is necessary to protect U.S. troops, the American people and the country.

She added that ODNI’s role is to coordinate and integrate intelligence, so the president has the best information available to inform his decisions, and said Trump had concluded Iran posed an imminent threat after reviewing the available intelligence.

She did not directly address Kent’s allegations or mention him by name.

The moment is especially striking for Gabbard because few figures in Trump’s orbit spent more time warning about regime change wars, intelligence failures and the cost of Washington interventionism.

As a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, she was so vocal in her opposition to war with Iran that she sold “No War With Iran” T-shirts.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News last year, she again spoke about diplomacy, military restraint and the human cost of conflict in terms that reflected a worldview she has carried for years.

In that interview, Gabbard said the stress of her first deployment in her mid-20s turned part of her hair white, and that she kept the streak as a reminder of the high human cost of war.

“War must always be the last resort, only after all measures of diplomacy have been completely exhausted,” she told ABC News in the interview.

This week’s hearings will also unfold against the backdrop of Gabbard’s broader and unusually quiet tenure. Before taking office, she was rarely far from public view, frequently appearing on television, podcasts and social media.

As DNI, that version of her has largely faded from public view.

In recent months, she has appeared mostly in glimpses, at major administration moments.

Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and the first person in U.S. history to serve as DNI while in military uniform, appeared in uniform at Dover Air Force Base earlier this month during the dignified transfer of six American soldiers killed in a drone strike in Kuwait in the opening hours of the war with Iran.

She also heads into the hearing with other controversies still hanging over her.

Gabbard has drawn scrutiny for her role in the administration’s election integrity push, including her appearance outside the FBI’s operation in Fulton County, Georgia, in January, where federal agents seized election materials tied to the 2020 election, and her subsequent acknowledgment that she arranged a call between President Donald Trump and the agents involved. She has also faced continuing questions about her investigations into election security in Puerto Rico and Arizona.

ABC News previously reported that Gabbard arranged a call between Trump and FBI agents involved in the seizure of election materials in Fulton County, an unusual move given the sensitivity of the investigation. In Arizona, a senior administration official told ABC News that Gabbard was not on the ground but was still “working across the agency to ensure election integrity.”

The hearing is shaping up as more than a routine annual threat assessment.

It will be the clearest public test yet of how Gabbard explains the role she has carved out inside the Trump administration, and how she reconciles the anti-war politics that helped define her rise with the office she now holds at the center of a war she is being asked to defend.

Cesar Chavez, the late farmworker organizer who became a national civil rights icon and co-founded the United Farm Workers, is accused of abusing “young women or minors,” the union said in a statement Tuesday.

“The UFW has learned of deeply troubling allegations that one of the union’s co-founders, Cesar Chavez, behaved in ways that are incompatible with our organization’s values,” the union said. “Some of the reports are family issues, and not our story to tell or our place to comment on. Far more troubling are allegations involving abuse of young women or minors. Allegations that very young women or girls may have been victimized are crushing.”

UFW says it does not have “firsthand knowledge” of any of the allegations and has not directly received reports of what they may be.

“However, the allegations are serious enough that we feel compelled to take urgent steps to learn more and provide space for people who may have been victimized to find support and to share their stories if that is what they choose,” the union said.

News of the allegations comes just two weeks before states across the country are set to observe Cesar Chavez Day on March 31. In recent days, cities including San Antonio have canceled events honoring Chavez.

Both the Cesar Chavez Foundation and the United Farm Workers have released statements referencing non-specific allegations of abuse. UFW says it will not be taking part in any Cesar Chavez Day activities.

“The Cesar Chavez Foundation has become aware of disturbing allegations that Cesar Chavez engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with women and minors during his time as President of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW),” the foundation said in a statement.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by what we are hearing. The Foundation is working with leaders in the Farmworker Movement to be responsive to these allegations, support the people who may have been harmed by his actions, and ensure we are united and guided by our commitment to justice and community empowerment,” the statement said.

The two organizations say they will be establishing what they described as a confidential and independent channel “for those who may have experienced harm caused by Cesar Chavez” to share their experiences.

“This channel is for those who wish to share their experiences of harm, to identify their current impacts and needs, and, if desired, to participate in a collective process to develop mechanisms for repair and accountability,” UFW said in the statement.

Chavez died in 1993 at the age of 66.

In modern day, more than three decades after his passing, Chavez continues to be the face of farmworker and immigrant rights movements. His decades of leading boycotts, protests, and strikes helped to improve the wages and working conditions for farmworkers in the country’s agricultural regions. 

Cesar Chavez Day was established as a federal commemorative holiday by President Barack Obama in 2014.

“These allegations have been profoundly shocking. We need some time to get this right, including to ensure robust, trauma-informed services are available to those who may need it,” the union added.