Block the – A US bill backed by Congresswoman Delia Ramirez to partially embargo weapons transfers to Israel has jumped from 21 Democratic supporters in June 2025 to 73 co-sponsors a year later. Ramirez and other advocates say the momentum reflects shifting public views a
On Capitol Hill, it wasn’t the idea of restricting US weapons transfers that drew attention Thursday. It was the size of the push behind it.
Congresswoman Delia Ramirez, who first announced the Block the Bombs Act in June 2025 with only 21 Democratic legislators supporting the measure, returned to the spotlight a year later with a new number: 73 co-sponsors. Palestinian rights supporters framed that climb as “historic” progress.
“While some thought that the bill was extreme, it has, in fact, become pretty mainstream,” Ramirez said at a news conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
For advocates, the shift matters because the bill does more than challenge a policy line—it punctures what they describe as years of broad, nearly unanimous bipartisan support for Israel in Congress. Still, the tally remains far from a majority in the 435-member House of Representatives.
Margaret DeReus, the executive director at the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU), said the 73 co-sponsors should be treated as a milestone, while urging more lawmakers to align with what she said is the majority of voters who reject unconditional aid to Israel.
“We are coming from such a deficit, where Congress has been so lacking in the courage to do what’s right, that this is actually a huge improvement from where we were,” DeReus told Al Jazeera.
“There’s still obviously a long, long road ahead.”
Ramirez made the urgency practical. She said Thursday that the bill needs to be brought to a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives, pointing to multiple Israeli military campaigns across the Middle East. So far, the House’s Republican leadership has blocked it.
She also used the moment to challenge the leadership of both sides of the US relationship. Ramirez chided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump for their roles in the war in Iran. Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. and the growing death toll in Gaza—where Israel continues to launch deadly attacks despite a “ceasefire.”.
“Trump and Netanyahu will keep expanding the wars, so that they can continue to consolidate power, so that they can remain in office, and so that they can continue to profit off our pain,” Ramirez said.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib pushed the argument from a different angle: the question of priorities.
Tlaib said it is no longer taboo to question Washington’s backing of Israel, citing what she described as increased public awareness of Israeli abuses.
“Americans want us to invest here at home. They want us not to invest in death and destruction and bombs. They want us to invest in clean water and housing and childcare and so much more,” Tlaib told reporters.
“So many can’t even afford to go to the doctor, yet we’ll in a minute find money to continue to support the government of Israel to bomb civilians.”
She credited ordinary people with the momentum behind the bill, arguing that change comes from public pressure rather than congressional calculations.
“Regular citizens that do not share my faith or ethnicity have been showing up at town halls, saying, ‘Why are you cutting SNAP and why are you starving Gaza?’” Tlaib said, referring to a food aid programme for low-income families.
“You see them come and say, ‘Why are we funding genocide, but not healthcare at home?’”
What the Block the Bombs Act would do is specific. The bill would ban transfers to Israel of certain heavy bombs and artillery ammunition—weaponry used in some of the deadliest attacks that occurred during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
The measure began in Congress with progressives and vocal critics of Israel. But as outrage over Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and across the region intensified, some lawmakers viewed as unlikely allies joined the list of co-sponsors.
Congresswoman Valerie Foushee. elected to Congress in 2022 with support of pro-Israel groups including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). co-sponsored the bill last year. In August 2025. she said. “We simply cannot continue to provide the Israeli government with weapons when they are not being used in accordance with international law to maximize the protection of civilians in Gaza.”.
A separate political story also runs through the bill’s expanding support. In May. AIPAC congratulated Congressman Christian Menefee for defeating his Texas colleague Al Green in a primary that pitted the two Democratic incumbents against one another. as a result of redistricting. Menefee became the latest co-sponsor of the Block the Bomb Act on Tuesday.
Republican support has followed its own path. Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, who lost his primary to a challenger backed by Trump and pro-Israel groups, put his name on the measure this week, turning the debate into something openly bipartisan.
“Israel has used American-supplied munitions to kill tens of thousands of innocent civilians,” Massie said.
“America is morally obligated to end support of Israel’s devastation of Gaza and its people. I’m cosponsoring the Block the Bombs Act to limit the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel.”
On Thursday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus added its backing as well. Its chair, Greg Casar, said the growth in support shows that activism—speaking out, marching, and contacting legislators—can force change.
“We need clearly to both take on the Republican Party but also change who we are as a Democratic Party if we want to save lives,” Casar said.
“The idea behind the Block the Bombs Act is simple: The United States should not be supplying bombs that we know will be used to perpetuate one of the worst disasters of our lifetimes.”
Some legislators said the bill is not about partisan identity, but about the reality of the humanitarian crisis. They argued that even with the “ceasefire” referenced in Ramirez’s remarks. humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain dire. with Israel still restricting humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory.
Congresswoman Lateefah Simon framed the issue as an American choice about what suffering should be met with. She said backing the bill should not be a red or blue issue.
“We should be clear — not red or blue, but as Americans — that we should put full bellies and humanitarian aid over bombs, particularly when you have hundreds of thousands of children and women and elderly folks who are starving, who are living in squalor,” Simon said.
“We are funding that humanitarian crisis. I think I only have one sentence left to say: Block the bombs.”
The one-year anniversary of the Block the Bombs Act is arriving as other proposals that question US ties to Israel gain momentum. On Wednesday. the House passed a resolution to rein in Trump’s powers to attack Iran without congressional authorisation. in a rebuke against the war the US and Israel launched against the country.
Forty out of 100 senators, including an overwhelming majority of Democrats, also voted in April to block the transfer of military bulldozers to Israel.
Beth Miller, the political director at the advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Action, said the increased support for the Block the Bombs Act is being driven by activism from the Palestinian rights movement in the US. She added that co-sponsor numbers remain too low.
“It’s a sign of how far we have to go that the majority of members of Congress still want to send bombs to a country committing genocide,” Miller said.
“So that’s why we’re all going to continue to speak out. It is time for all of Congress to act. It is time to block the bombs.”
Even as support grows, the House vote is still out of reach. The question Thursday was no longer whether more lawmakers are willing to challenge the weapons relationship—it was whether the Republican leadership will allow the measure to reach the floor and force a decision in a chamber where. for now. the bill still does not have a majority.
Block the Bombs Act Delia Ramirez Rashida Tlaib Thomas Massie Valerie Foushee Greg Casar Lateefah Simon Gaza Israel Congress arms restrictions Capitol Hill humanitarian aid SNAP