Gates and General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee to discuss the president's new Iraq policy.
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Mr. Bush says he is sending the troops to Baghdad and the volatile western Anbar province in an effort to quell violence there.
During an appearance Thursday before the House Armed Services Committee, Gates stressed that Iraq will have to deliver more troops to Baghdad, and limit political interference in military operations.
Public support for the war has been dropping, and leaders in the Democrat-controlled Congress have sharply criticized Mr. Bush's plan to deploy additional U.S. troops.
Democratic Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware described Mr. Bush's strategy as "a tragic mistake" during testimony by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Biden chairs.
Some members of the president's own Republican Party also have indicated their opposition to the administration's strategy.
During Thursday's hearings, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said he opposes Mr. Bush's plan. Hagel called it, in his words, "the most serious foreign policy blunder since Vietnam." Hagel is a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War.