Senate Blocks Effort to Stop Israel Arms Sale as Democrats Split as GOP Stands Firm

Why It Matters

The motion to discharge S.J.Res. 138 which is a joint resolution that would have blocked a $151.8 million sale of 1,000-pound gravity bombs to Israel failed in the Senate on Wednesday, April 16. The votes broke almost entirely along party lines. The final tally: 36 in favor, 63 opposed.

The congressional disapproval resolution targeted a specific tranche of the Trump administration's broader push to accelerate military sales to Israel — in this case, 12,000 BLU-110A/B "dumb" gravity bombs sold via emergency authority that bypassed the standard congressional notification process. Under the Arms Export Control Act, Congress has the power to block such transfers, but only if both chambers pass disapproval resolutions and the president either signs them or is overridden by a supermajority. With the administration firmly behind the sale and Republicans unified in opposition, the resolution had virtually no path to enactment even before the vote.

The S.J.Res. 138 floor vote was one of two disapproval resolutions forced to the floor by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), targeting a combined roughly $450 million in bombs and bulldozers destined for Israel. Both failed.

The Big Picture

The Trump administration didn't just oppose S.J.Res. 138. It initiated the underlying sale. According to Reuters, the administration invoked emergency authority to expedite the sale of more than 20,000 bombs to Israel worth approximately $650 million, sidestepping the normal congressional review window. S.J.Res. 138 was a direct legislative response to that maneuver.

Sanders, who has been pushing these disapproval votes for months, framed the effort as the only formal mechanism Congress possesses to check executive arms sales. The New York Times noted ahead of the vote that even a successful passage would have required a presidential signature — or a veto override — to take effect, making the resolution's prospects dim regardless of the Senate outcome.

Yes, but: The vote exposed a genuine fracture inside the Democratic caucus. Eleven Democrats crossed over to vote No alongside all 52 Republicans — a defection rate of roughly 25 percent. That's not a rounding error; it's a policy disagreement.

Partisan Perspectives

S.J.Res. 138 Floor Vote: The Case For

Sen. Bernie Sanders was direct: "A recent poll found that 60 percent — including three-quarters of Democrats and two-thirds of independents — oppose the U.S. sending arms to Israel." He argued the weapons have enabled mass civilian casualties, stating the Netanyahu government "has killed some 60,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 143,000 — most of whom are women, children and the elderly."

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) offered a more measured framing: "I have always supported Israel's right to defend itself," but said he was "voting against these transfers of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs because the Netanyahu government's current use of weapons like these has resulted in extraordinary levels of civilian harm."

The Other Side

Sen. Christopher Coons (D-DE) broke with his party and explained why: "Israel may not need 2,000-pound bombs to prosecute its war against Hamas, but it will need them in the event of war against Iran." He added that Trump's "continued provocations in the Middle East" made a regional conflict "far more likely," and argued that stripping Israel of deterrent capacity now was the wrong move.

Notable Defections

The eleven Democrats who voted No represent a cross-section of the caucus — including Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), John Reed (D-RI), Gary Peters (D-MI), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), among others. On the Republican side, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) did not vote. No Republicans voted Yes.

Worth Noting

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has been an active lobbying presence on Israel-related foreign policy matters. FEC records show AIPAC PAC contributions to several senators whose votes were relevant here, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who received $10,000 across two contributions, and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who received $5,000. Both voted No on the discharge motion, in line with the Republican caucus.

On the Democratic side, SIG SAUER Inc. — a defense manufacturer that lobbied on foreign military sales matters related to Israel — reported $170,000 in lobbying expenditures across 2025. SIG SAUER's PAC contributions went primarily to Republican members, including Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David McCormick (R-PA), both of whom voted No.

Political Stakes

For Senate Republicans, the vote was a clean win — unanimous, disciplined, and aligned with an administration they've shown little appetite to cross on foreign policy. For Senate Democrats, the picture is messier. Sanders and the progressive wing of the caucus can claim a moral argument and a polling argument. The eleven defectors can claim a geopolitical one. Neither side fully controls the caucus's direction on Israel policy, and that tension is one to watch as the Midterms approach.

For the Trump administration, the outcome was never really in doubt, but the vote still serves a purpose: it demonstrates that even on a question as charged as civilian casualties in Gaza, Republicans hold the line. The administration's use of emergency authority to bypass Congress on the original sale went unchallenged in any meaningful legislative sense.

For the American public — particularly the roughly 60 percent Sanders cited as opposing arms transfers — the vote is a reminder of how limited Congress's tools are when the executive branch is determined to act and one party is unified in support.

The Bottom Line

The foreign policy resolution vote failed not because the arguments against the sale were absent, but because the math was never there. The discharge motion needed 51 votes. It got 36. The broader question — whether Congress can or will meaningfully check executive arms sales to Israel — remains unresolved. Sanders has now forced multiple such votes, and multiple times the outcome has been the same. What's changed is the size of the Democratic defection, which signals that the caucus's internal debate on Israel is ongoing and unresolved.

The use of emergency authority to bypass congressional review is the structural issue underneath all of this. If that authority continues to be used to accelerate major arms sales, disapproval resolutions become largely symbolic. Congress will have a way to register dissent, but not to change policy.

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