Transcript: Rep. Jason Crow on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” March 22, 2026
The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on March 22, 2026.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And now we’re joined by Colorado Democratic Congressman Jason Crow. We welcome you.
REP. JASON CROW: Thank you, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you sit on the House Intelligence Committee. This past week, you heard the Director of National Intelligence testify about Iran’s capabilities, saying that we will not see an ICBM that could, in theory, be something that would carry nuclear weapons to American shores. He said they won’t have it until 2035 if they try at all. Are you- what- afraid he was wrong? Because Israel says that what was fired was an ICBM that was aimed at this US, UK base.
REP. ICROW: Well, you could be wrong, and we should- obviously we should be immersed in information. The question has never been whether Iran poses a threat or series of threats to the United States, but that is where the analysis begins, not where the analysis ends. OK? We have many threats. Kim Jong Un makes a threat. Putin makes a threat. We have threats around the world. The question is, what do we do about it? And right now, we’ve spent 20 billion dollars in the first two weeks of this war alone, a billion and a half dollars a day. Americans are paying $300 million a day in higher electricity prices. The global terrorist threat against the United States and Americans is increasing. And there is no off-ramp. We have no strategy and no end game. This is confusion by any definition, and now we have to figure out what to do from here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So no timeline beyond four to six weeks has been communicated or shared with Congress at this time.
REP. NOTE: No, no, we don’t get information on this, this administration. They started this war without congressional approval. No threat is forthcoming. In fact, they have stopped pretending that there is an imminent threat, which is necessary for the president to take action without congressional approval. So now here we are spending tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money, losing American lives. Congress is not involved. We are stoned. Americans are not in the driver’s seat here, are they? Because the Congress has been sidelined in this case, they are the ones who should have a say in whether they will send their sons and daughters to fight this war, whether they will finance it. It is time for this to end.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Let’s say taking a break. I have a lot to talk about on the other side of it, so everyone, please stay with us. We will be right back.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face The Nation. We now return to our interview with Colorado Congressman Jason Crow. Before we leave the topic of Iran, I want to ask you, last Sunday in this program, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said that the war was ahead of schedule. And while it was in the budget office, he didn’t think the administration would need any kind of additional money. But days later, Secretary Hegseth appeared to confirm that the Pentagon needed up to $200 billion.
[SOUND ON TAPE STARTS]PETE HEGSETH 0:31
up to $200 billion I think that number can go. Obviously, it takes, it takes money to kill bad guys. So we’re going back to Congress and its people to make sure we’re properly funded for what has happened, for what we may need to do in the future.
[SOUND ON TAPE ENDS]MARGARET BRENNAN: I know you’re against war, but is there a way to structure this deal where you’re going to be comfortable with more money?
REP. JUDGMENT: No, if they think I’m going to vote for hundreds of billions of dollars for an unauthorized war, a war they didn’t bring to Congress, a war they didn’t explain to the American people about what we’re doing and what we’re not doing, how it’s going to end, how we’re protecting our service members. And on top of that, House Republicans gave the DOD, a $150 billion slush fund last summer as part of Donald Trump’s big, bad bill, and on top of that, they said they’re going to come and ask for a $1.5 billion defense budget. And the Department of Defense, to this day, cannot pass the test. They cannot tell us where all their things are, where they spend their money. So I don’t want to throw money at a DOD that can’t pass research, sitting on money they haven’t counted and spent and continue an unauthorized war that doesn’t benefit America.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I know you’re a veteran, but you know the charge is going to be made that Democrats don’t support the military.
REP. GCOKAMA: There is definitely something they will say. But there is a lot of money within the DOD for military families, for soldiers, for barracks. I’ve confirmed that I’m sitting on the Armed Services Committee, and I’m going to continue to push forward and vote to make sure that our soldiers, our soldiers are taken care of, that we have the soldiers that we need to protect America. What I won’t do is just throw money at the Iran war, which they now admit is a war. This cannot continue. We spent 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, billions of dollars. It ends here. It must be complete here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Tell me, though, as a Democrat, because Congress is scheduled to go on vacation soon, many TSA agents are not getting paid because of this Democrat-led funding freeze, because of the need to change immigration policy, something the White House hasn’t made any deals* that I know of so far. This is in the Senate, but as a Democrat, I say, look at the Denver airport near your state. They are asking people to donate gift cards so TSA agents can make a living. The airport says, you know, this is a huge generator in terms of what the airport does for the region. This is hurting your community. How do you go about preventing shutdowns?
REP. CROW: I’ll be very clear that this is a shutdown of the Republican–
MARGARET BRENNAN: — Republicans are–
REP. CROW: –Just yesterday–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –fund everything.
REP. CROW: Just yesterday, the U.S. Senate held a vote, and the Senate Democrats deauthorized everything except ice and CBP, that’s the Coast Guard, that’s the TSA, that’s cybersecurity. All Senate Republicans voted against it. In the house, we actually have on the bill, Rosa DeLauro and Hakeem Jeffries. We have a clean bill that would force a vote to open everything up, fund everything except ICE and CBP. Republicans are stopping it. They don’t even allow a vote on that bill. So we are ready to go. They control everything–
MARGARET BRENNAN: But right now those people are —
REP. CROW: –government side–
MARGARET BRENNAN: — they’re stuck. It’s almost spring break, the season of heavy vehicles.
REP. JUDGMENT: They control all parts of the government. They are the ones who control what we vote for and what we don’t vote for. We say, let’s open it and go back. Let’s fund the Coast Guard. Let’s fund FEMA. Let’s support the TSA. Let’s fund cybersecurity, which, by the way, we need because we just started a war with Iran, which has great cyber capability. We want to finance it. We are ready to finance it. We will take the votes tomorrow. They stopped that vote. They own this closure.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman Crow, thank you very much for your time today. We will be right back.
*Editor’s Note: The White House sent a letter to Congress on March 17 outlining some concessions the administration is willing to make.
