Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will testify in front of Senate and House lawmakers next week in his first public testimony since his confirmation.

Hegseth will appear alongside the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, in front of the House and Senate appropriations defense subcommittees next Tuesday, according to the committees’ websites. He is also reportedly set to appear in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on June 18, according to NBC News.

Recommended Stories

• Trump said he didn’t have the cards, but Zelensky had an ace in the hole
• Pro-Palestinian protesters storm stage while Navy secretary speaks
• DC mayor worried about Trump military parade causing $16 million in roadway damages

It will be the first time lawmakers will have the opportunity to question him since he was sworn in as secretary in late January. Since then, he has been accused of sharing classified intelligence on an unsecured platform in two group chats on Signal, and the military launched a near-two-month-long military campaign in the Middle East and deployed thousands of troops to the southern border.

One of the chats in which he shared sensitive information included more than a dozen Cabinet members. President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Mike Waltz, created the now-infamous group chat, unknowingly adding Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to it. Hegseth shared operational details of the impending U.S. military operation against the Houthis in Yemen in the chat — and did so again in a second group chat that included his personal lawyer, wife, and brother.

Under Hegseth, the military has also taken several actions to eliminate diversity and gender initiatives, actions that were supported or condemned largely along party lines.

The administration is also pursuing the country’s first-ever trillion-dollar defense budget.

Like his confirmation process, Hegseth will likely get easier questions and support from many Republicans on the committee, while he will face scrutiny from nearly all Democrats. His confirmation process was one of the most controversial of Trump’s Cabinet picks, and he faced questions about his infidelity, a sexual assault allegation, and accusations of binge drinking.

No Democrat voted to confirm him, and three GOP senators — Susan Collins (R-ME), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) — defected and didn’t support his nomination. Coincidentally, all three of them are on the subcommittee that Hegseth and Caine will appear before next week, and McConnell is the chairman.

OPERATION SPIDER’S WEB SHOWS HOW CREATIVE UKRAINE CAN GET IN TAKING FIGHT TO RUSSIA

“Mr. Hegseth has failed, as yet, to demonstrate that he will pass this test. But as he assumes office, the consequences of failure are as high as they have ever been,” McConnell said in January, explaining why he didn’t support Hegseth’s confirmation. “The United States faces coordinated aggression from adversaries bent on shattering the order underpinning American security and prosperity. In public comments and testimony before the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Hegseth did not reckon with this reality.”