Representative Gregory Meeks, the leading Democrat on the House foreign affairs committee, announced a hold on a $2.8 billion arms transfer to Israel on Tuesday. The package includes 40,000 heavy bombs—among them 20,000 MK-84 bombs, 20,000 BLU-117 bombs, and 20,000 I-2000 penetrator warheads—to be funded through US Foreign Military Financing.
Meeks stated that the Trump administration had not provided adequate assurances that Israel would use the weapons in compliance with US law and with appropriate civilian protections. While Meeks cannot unilaterally veto the sale, his leverage derives from an informal practice known as “tiered review,” under which the state department typically submits major weapons packages to senior foreign affairs lawmakers for an informal clearance before formal congressional notification. Outright rejection would require a veto-proof joint resolution of disapproval in both chambers, a threshold Congress has not previously cleared.
The hold occurs within a broader context of accelerated arms transfers to Israel under the Trump administration. In 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked a national security emergency to bypass congressional review and expedite approximately $3 billion in weapons, including more than 35,000 heavy bombs and 4,000 bunker-buster warheads. Combined with a separate $6.67 billion package approved in January, the administration has now cleared or expedited over $12 billion in arms for Israel since Trump took office.
Meeks has previously contended that the pace of sales has outpaced meaningful congressional oversight, noting that officials have skipped briefings and accelerated transfers while raising concerns about Israeli operations in the occupied West Bank and Lebanon. The sale comes amid longstanding allegations that Israel has utilized American weapons in ways that may violate the Leahy laws, which restrict US assistance to foreign military units credibly linked to extrajudicial killings and serious abuse. The state department flagged at least five Israeli units on those grounds in 2024.
Meeks emphasized that his decision reflected Congress’s responsibility to ensure lawful use of US-funded weapons rather than opposition to Israel’s defense needs. The state department did not immediately provide a response.
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