Democratic senators demand review of conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln, other US warships participating in Iran blockade | CNN Politics

Two influential Democratic senators are demanding that the Pentagon investigate quality-of-life issues aboard Navy ships participating in the standoff with Iran, according to a letter shared exclusively with CNN. In the letter sent Monday to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, the lawmakers requested “an immediate independent strategic review” of the recent deployments of the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carriers and the USS Benfold destroyer, which spent four days last month without power in the South China Sea after an engineering failure. The two carriers experienced extended deployments, with the well-being of crew members on the Lincoln gaining scrutiny earlier this month amid reports of difficult conditions. The demand for an investigation came from the top Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee — Patty Murray of Washington, the committee vice chair, and Chris Coons of Delaware, who is also the top Democrat on the committee’s defense panel. The committee is considered powerful because it writes federal budget laws. The requested independent review, the senators wrote, “should examine readiness issues re