Embargo Advocates Gain Seats and a Legislative Foothold

Card photograph: ARCHIVE. Pro-Palestinian encampment at George Washington University, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2024. Photo: Fuzheado / Wikimedia Commons. CC0 1.0. Cropped for the card. License. Source photograph.

Claire Valdez and Melat Kiros won House seats on November 3 after campaigning against U.S. arms support for Israel. Their victories, reported by NPR, add advocates to a congressional fight that already includes proposed restrictions on weapons transfers and military production.

Valdez’s platform calls for ending weapons sales and military aid to Israel. Kiros lists an arms embargo among her central commitments. Both will enter a House where Rashida Tlaib has proposed cutting military support and redirecting resources toward housing.

The legislative choices are more specific than a declaration of opposition. They concern whether a transfer proceeds, whether the United States authorizes joint production, and whether military technology programs tie the two countries’ defense industries more closely together.

The restrictions already proposed

ARCHIVE. Ceasefire demonstrators at the March on Washington for Gaza in Freedom Plaza, January 13, 2024. Photo: Elvert Barnes. License. Source photograph.

On June 30, Tlaib introduced 26 proposed amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act. Amendment 173 would remove the U.S.-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative. Amendment 841 would prohibit authorization of funding for new military co-production agreements with Israel.

Those provisions target the industrial relationship, not only a shipment of finished weapons. Joint programs can create contracts, production relationships and institutional commitments that persist across administrations. Removing authorization would challenge the expansion of that infrastructure before it becomes another supposedly untouchable commitment.

Tlaib’s amendment 853 would restrict arms sales and transfers to countries meeting specified international-court conditions. These include genocide-convention proceedings in which the International Court of Justice has indicated provisional measures, or governments whose officials face outstanding International Criminal Court arrest warrants.

The amendments were proposals offered to change the defense bill. Their targets are distinct: a transfer of weapons, authorization of a technology initiative and funding for a new production agreement.

A separate bill targets offensive weapons

Delia Ramirez introduced the Block the Bombs Act, H.R. 3565, on May 21, 2025. The official record lists referral to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the status “Introduced.” Its original sponsors included Sara Jacobs, Pramila Jayapal, Mark Pocan, Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez.

The bill text covers specified weapons, including bunker-busting bombs, JDAM guidance assemblies, tank ammunition and artillery rounds. Transfers would require an enacted law specifying permitted purposes and written Israeli assurances of compliance with relevant U.S. and international law.

That makes the bill narrower than a permanent ban on all military aid. It would replace executive discretion over the listed weapons with additional legislative and legal conditions. Members willing to restrict particular munitions could support it without adopting the full embargo Valdez and Kiros campaigned for.

The election has added supporters of a broader break with military aid to an existing legislative coalition. The dispute is now grounded in identifiable provisions: which weapons are barred, which exceptions remain and whether joint military production receives another authorization.