WASHINGTON — After a year-and-a-half without a confirmed Pentagon controller, today the Senate voted 50 to 47, as part of a larger en bloc package, for Jules “Jay” Hurst to officially take on the role, along with greenlighting key Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) nominees.
Hurst, who performed the duties of comptroller from August 2025 until May when the White House appointed him to take over the role full time, will now slide back into the role overseeing defense budgets and spend plans once sworn in. During his mid-July confirmation hearing, he vowed to focus on three main priorities if confirmed — passing a clean audit by 2028, constructing budgets that align with the ongoing evolutions in warfare while also expanding the industrial base, and improving financial management systems and processes.
Once he is sworn in and back in the comptroller seat, Hurst will be overseeing Iran spending and the associated supplemental funding expected to be in the tens of billions of dollars, along with the FY27 spending request that has yet to be approved. He will also be responsible for crafting the FY28 budget request. At the same time, Hurst’s office is also under pressure to get $152 billion in 2025 reconciliation spending under contract by the end of September or risk an 8.3 percent cut to the remaining balance.
