It is expected that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testify to a camera panel on Tuesday, his first time in Capitol Hill since he swore five months ago already measure that the questions revolve on the deployment of troops to Los Angeles as part of an immigration repression.

Hegseth planned to appear before the Chamber’s Assignments Defense Subcommittee together with General Dan Caine, president of the Joint Personnel Chiefs, and the Interim Comptroller of the Pentagon Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell to discuss the next 2026 budget request of the Administration.

During the hearing, it is widely expected that Hegseth avoids many of the details about the military expenses plan, which has not been published, and instead highlights recent profits in recruitment numbers and new technological initiatives in the army.

But eclipse much of his testimony will be the pentagon’s decision to send about 4,800 troops, including 700 Marines, Los Angeles after several days of clashes between the protesters and the application of the law there. The troops, known as the task force 51, are being called under a law known as Title 10, which allows the President to send military forces to protect federal property and personnel.

General Eric Smith, commander of the Marines Corps, is scheduled to testify separately on Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

On the eve of Hegesh’s testimony, representative Betty McCollum in Minnesota, the main Democrat in the Defense Assignments of the House of Representatives, accused President Donald Trump to deliberately increase the situation in Los Angeles by promoting military reinforcements not requested by the California Democratic governor Gavin Newsom. He called the decision to send the Marines in particular “outrageous“

“The Active Service Army has absolutely no legal role in the application of national law. President Trump and Secretary Hegseth should read the Constitution and follow the law,” he said.

The Pentagon has not had a press conference since the deployment of troops to Los Angeles, referring to journalists with questions about the mission to Hegseth publications in X.

In X, Hegseth said the troops were necessary to protect federal immigration officers and detention buildings.

“There is a lot of space for the peaceful protest, but zero tolerance to attack federal agents who are doing their job. The National Guard and the Marines, if necessary, Stand With Ice,” Hegseth said in a statement.

American officials said that the troops would carry weapons and ammunition separately for use only in self -defense and to protect federal property. They would not patrol the streets or help the protesters of the application of the law, officials said.

It is not clear if Trump is preparing to invoke the insurrection law, an 1807 law that says that the president can resort to a militia or the United States armed forces if there has been “any insurrection, domestic violence, illegal combination or conspiracy” in a state that “opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or prevents the course of justice under those laws.”

In his social platform of Truth on Sunday, Trump referred to Los Angeles’s protesters as “violent and insurrectionist mobs” and “paid insurrectionists.”

When asked if Hegseth had spoken with Trump on Monday, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told ABC News: “The secretary is in regular contact with the president regarding the presence of the National Guard in Los Angeles.”

After his testimony, Hegseth is expected to travel with Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday to participate in activities linked to the celebration of the 250 Army birthday.

Under Hegesh, the military has taken over the control of hundreds of miles along the southern border of the United States with Mexico in an effort to boost unauthorized entry by migrants. He has also eliminated programs aimed at increasing diversity among military personnel, cut the number of general officers and initiated efforts to build an antimile defense shield of $ 175 billion.

At the same time, Hegseth also faces dysfunction reports and internal struggles between his personal staff in the Pentagon. Since its January 25 swore, Hegesh fired or left aside several of his own political advisors and has left without a chief of staff since April.

Tuesday’s audience would also be Hegseth’s first appearance from the revelations that was based on a commercial messaging application known as a signal to transmit details about a pending military attack to other high -ranking officials and others, including his wife. The use of the Hegseth signal is now under internal investigation by the inspector general of the Department of Defense.

Luis Martínez de ABC contributed to this report.