Why It Matters

Whether U.S.-Israeli strikes since Feb. 28 have affected Iran's nuclear facilities is unclear, according to a new Congressional Research Service report. It says the 2025 National Security Strategy and 2026 National Defense Strategy give conflicting assessments of the June 2025 strikes, describing them as having "significantly degraded" and "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program, respectively. ​

The Trump administration launched operations against Iran on Feb. 28, with President Donald Trump citing objectives that included preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and "[razing] their missile industry to the ground."

The Big Picture

The Feb. 28 operations came approximately eight months after June 2025 U.S.-Israeli strikes that Trump said had "completely and totally obliterated" Iran's key enrichment facilities, yet the 2026 Annual Threat Assessment found that Iran "was intending to try to recover from the devastation of its nuclear infrastructure" before the 2026 strikes.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) withdrew inspectors from Iran after the June 2025 strikes and has not inspected the attacked facilities since.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi stated on March 2 that the agency had no evidence of "a structured [Iranian] program to manufacture nuclear weapons." The White House stated on April 8 that the operation struck more than 450 ballistic missile targets and approximately 800 attack drone targets, and that "Iran's ballistic missile arsenal and production capacity has been razed." An April U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment said Iran "retains thousands of missiles and one-way attack UAVs that can threaten U.S. and partner forces throughout the region, despite degradations."

On the legislative side, H.R. 8800, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027 sponsored by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL-3), has passed the House. The House Armed Services Committee report accompanying H.R. 8800 directed the Secretary of Defense to submit a report by Feb. 1, 2027, on the "impact of United States military operations … on Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities." S. 1071, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), became P.L. 119-60 on Dec. 18, 2025, and modified an existing Iran military-power reporting requirement to add information on Iran's nuclear and drone programs.

The Bottom Line

Potential next steps for Congress include reviewing existing Iran reporting requirements; seeking a public version of the Pentagon's annual Iran military-power report; and raising these topics at threat-assessment hearings.

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