Democrats Move to Block $2.8 Billion Bomb Sale to Israel as Top House Panel Democrat Places a Hold

Since the Washington Post first reported the Trump administration's plan to sell Israel 40,000 heavy bombs on September 15, the story has shifted from a leak to a live fight on Capitol Hill.

The $2.8 billion package, informally notified to Congress on September 15, includes 20,000 MK-84 unguided bombs and 20,000 BLU-117 precision-guided versions, both 2,000-pound munitions, according to the Washington Post as cited by the Jerusalem Post, Anadolu Agency, and the Guardian. Multiple outlets, including Fox News and the Daily Wire, also report 20,000 I-2000 Penetrator warheads designed to punch through concrete and rock before detonating.

On Wednesday, September 16, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he would not clear the sale. Meeks cited "grave, unresolved concerns about how these munitions could be used in densely populated areas of Gaza and Lebanon by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government," according to the Associated Press, as reported by Breitbart. Meeks said the administration "has not provided sufficient assurances that these weapons will be used by the Netanyahu government in accordance with U.S. law and with appropriate protections for civilians."

Meeks' hold is a speed bump, not a roadblock. Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds emergency authority to bypass the normal congressional review process by declaring the sale an urgent national security interest. This move would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override, according to Breitbart and the Daily Wire. Rubio has already used that authority once this year, on a $2.98 billion sale, and the administration approved a separate $6.67 billion series of arms sales to Israel in January.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, are both publicly opposing the deal. Sanders wrote on social media that "the American people are sick and tired of funding Israel's genocide in Gaza," calling on Congress to reject the package outright, according to Fox News. Van Hollen asked "how is this America First?" and pledged that lawmakers "will work to stop it."

That position draws direct pushback from John Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies at West Point's Modern War Institute, who argues the genocide label doesn't hold up. "By no definition (words have meaning) has Israel done a genocide in Gaza," Spencer wrote, as quoted by the Daily Wire. He argues Israel's targets are Hamas and Hezbollah's underground bunker networks, some reportedly built as deep as 200 feet, and that no evidence shows Israel has deliberately targeted civilians.

Other voices land in between. Trevor Ball, a former Army explosive-ordnance-disposal technician who studies open-source images of weapons damage, told the Washington Post, as cited by the Guardian and Anadolu, that the MK-84 is used to level entire buildings: "If Hezbollah or whoever is in a building, an MK-84 will bring down the whole building." Brian Finucane of the International Crisis Group told the Post there are "real concerns" about how the weapons get used in densely populated areas, given Israel's air campaigns in Gaza and, to a lesser extent, southern Lebanon.

The Guardian notes the New York Times previously reported that Israel had routinely dropped MK-84 bombs in parts of Gaza it had itself designated as safe zones for civilians. This detail does not appear in Fox News and the Daily Wire's coverage.

If finalized, this would be the largest single sale of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in recent years, topping a 2025 sale of roughly 35,500 bombs worth $2.04 billion, according to the Jerusalem Post and Fox News. It would also mark a full reversal of the one Biden-era restriction on Israeli weapons transfers. The Biden administration paused a shipment of MK-84s in 2024 over mass-casualty concerns, a pause Trump lifted in January 2025 upon taking office, according to Anadolu Agency.

Most of the package would run through Foreign Military Financing, meaning U.S. taxpayer dollars are handed to Israel, which then uses that money to buy the weapons back from American manufacturers, according to the Guardian and the Jerusalem Post.

The State Department has declined to comment on the pending sale beyond a boilerplate line from a senior official: "All foreign arms sales are moving through the appropriate process. We do not comment on pending sales." Israel's Ministry of Defense has also declined to comment, per Fox News.

The practical question now is whether Rubio invokes his emergency bypass authority, as he has once already this year, or whether enough Democrats and Republicans coalesce to actually block the sale. Fox News notes House Democrats have already struggled to do so on a separate measure, the Massie amendment to cut $3.3 billion in Israel aid, where the caucus split badly. No formal congressional vote to block the sale has occurred as of September 22, and no timeline for Rubio's decision has been announced.