The Pentagon will send a proposal to the White House within seven days offering recommendations on troop numbers in Afghanistan, military leaders said Thursday.

“We are actually actively looking at adjustments to the approach in Afghanistan right now,” said Theresa Whelan, the Pentagon’s acting assistant defense secretary for special operations.

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"I expect that these proposals will go to the president within the next week and the intent is to do just that, to move beyond the stalemate and also to recognize that Afghanistan is a very important partner for the United States in a very tricky region,” she said before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, said in February that he has a “shortfall of a few thousand” troops in Afghanistan.

Senior military leaders also have expressed a need for about 3,000 to 5,000 additional troops, and described the current fight as a stalemate.

Right now, there are about 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan on a dual mission of training, advising and assisting Afghan forces in their fight against the Taliban, and conducting counterterrorism missions against groups such as al Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The train, advise and assist mission is a NATO mission, and Nicholson has said the few thousand troops he is short could come from either the United States or NATO countries.

Speaking alongside Whelan, U.S. Special Operations Command head Gen. Raymond Thomas told lawmakers he did not think more U.S. special operations forces should be sent to Afghanistan and he “an adequate number” of forces on the ground for the counterterrorism mission in the country.

He added that the recommendations for the White House may include changes to the rules of engagement in Afghanistan, and an outline plan for an enduring U.S. presence in the country.

There have been a number of high profile attacks in Afghanistan in the last few months, including an ISIS suicide bombing in Kabul on Wednesday that wounded three U.S. service members, killed eight civilians and injured at least 25 others.

Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainKelly's lead widens to 10 points in Arizona Senate race: poll COVID response shows a way forward on private gun sale checks Trump pulls into must-win Arizona trailing in polls MORE (R-Ariz.) also pointed to the deadly Taliban attack on an Afghan army base in April, which left more than 100 dead.