I 
118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8437 
To provide for congressional oversight of proposed changes to arms sales 
to Israel. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 16, 2024 
Mr. MCCAUL (for himself, Mrs. WAGNER, Mrs. RADEWAGEN, Mr. SELF, Mr. 
LAWLER, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. KEAN of New Jersey, Mr. 
STANTON, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. OWENS, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mr. JACKSON 
of Texas, Mrs. KIGGANS
of Virginia, Mr. NUNN
of Iowa, Mr. 
RESCHENTHALER, Mr. BACON, Mr. BALDERSON, Ms. MANNING, Mr. 
MAST, Mr. FLEISCHMANN, Mr. GUEST, Mr. GIMENEZ, Mr. LAMBORN, 
Mr. BARR, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. SMITH of New Jer-
sey, Mr. GARBARINO, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Mr. GOLDEN of Maine, Mr. 
MOSKOWITZ, and Mrs. MILLER of West Virginia) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in ad-
dition to the Committee on Rules, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To provide for congressional oversight of proposed changes 
to arms sales to Israel. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Maintaining Our Iron-
clad Commitment to Israel’s Security Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) In 2016 the Obama Administration con-
cluded negotiations with Israel for a 10-year Memo-
randum of Understanding covering security assist-
ance for fiscal years 2019 to 2028 that affirmed 
‘‘the unshakeable commitment of the United States 
to Israel’s security’’. 
(2) In May 2024, the Biden Administration de-
layed shipment of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 
1,700 500-pound bombs to Israel in an effort to 
place political pressure on the Government of Israel. 
(3) This decision of the Biden Administration 
was made without consulting or notifying Congress 
and despite repeated public assurances that the 
United States-Israel relationship was ‘‘ironclad’’ and 
that there was ‘‘no change in policy’’. 
(4) On May 8, 2024, President Biden stated re-
garding Israel, ‘‘We’re not going to supply the weap-
ons and artillery shells.’’. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) Israel has a right to defend itself, which in-
cludes the need for offensive capabilities in order to 
deter and defeat threats, including those posed by 
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Iran and its terrorist proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, and 
the Houthis; 
(2) previously negotiated and approved United 
States arms sales to Israel should proceed, and all 
pauses should be lifted, to ensure that Israel is prop-
erly equipped to defend itself and defeat threats, in-
cluding those posed by Iran and its terrorist proxies 
Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis; and 
(3) limiting or otherwise delaying the sale or 
delivery of United States-made defense articles to 
Israel runs counter to the commitments the United 
States made to Israel as part of the 2016 Memo-
randum of Understanding and undermines regional 
security, including prospective advances in Israel- 
Saudi normalization. 
SEC. 
4. 
CONGRESSIONAL 
OVERSIGHT 
OF 
PROPOSED 
CHANGES TO ARMS SALES TO ISRAEL. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The President may not take any 
action to pause, suspend, delay, or abrogate the delivery 
of covered defense articles or defense services to Israel, 
including as part of a policy review, unless, not less than 
15 days prior to such action, the President provides the 
notification described in (b) relating to such pause, sus-
pension, delay, or abrogation in unclassified form, with a 
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classified annex as necessary, to the appropriate congres-
sional committees. 
(b) NOTIFICATION DESCRIBED.—The notification re-
lating to a pause, suspension, delay, or abrogation to the 
delivery of covered defense articles or defense services 
shall include the following: 
(1) An identification of the end user of the arti-
cles or services. 
(2) A detailed description of the type of articles 
or services to include the date on which Congress 
was notified of the transfer of the articles or serv-
ices. 
(3) A policy justification for the pause, suspen-
sion, delay, or abrogation and a description of the 
potential impact such action may have on United 
States national security interests. 
(4) An identification of conditions for lifting the 
pause, suspension, delay, or abrogation and whether 
such conditions will be communicated to the Govern-
ment of Israel and the timeline for meeting such 
conditions. 
(5) A description of the sources of funds, in-
cluding an identification of appropriations accounts 
if applicable, used to provide the articles or services. 
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(6) An identification of any bilateral agreement 
or memorandum of understanding related to the au-
thority to provide the articles or services. 
(7) A description as to whether the action 
would adversely affect Israel’s qualitative military 
edge over military threats to Israel. 
(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 
(1) the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ means— 
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 
the Committee on Appropriations of the House 
of Representatives; and 
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations 
and the Committee on Appropriations of the 
Senate; and 
(2) the term ‘‘qualitative military edge’’ has the 
meaning given that term in section 36(h)(3) of the 
Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2776(h)(3)). 
SEC. 5. CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW. 
(a) LIMITATION ON ACTIONS DURING INITIAL CON-
GRESSIONAL REVIEW PERIOD.—During the 15 day period 
following the submission of a notification described in sec-
tion 4(b), the President may not take any action to pause, 
suspend, delay, or abrogate the delivery of covered defense 
articles or services to Israel described in such notification. 
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(b) LIMITATION ON ACTIONS AFTER INTRODUCTION 
OF A JOINT RESOLUTION OF DISAPPROVAL.—If a joint 
resolution of disapproval relating to notification described 
in section 4(b) is introduced, the President may not take 
any action relating to the pause, suspension, delay, or ab-
rogation to the delivery of covered defense articles or de-
fense services described in such notification for a period 
of 10 calendar days, unless the joint resolution sooner 
passes both Houses of Congress. 
(c) LIMITATION ON ACTIONS DURING PRESIDENTIAL 
CONSIDERATION
OF
A JOINT RESOLUTION
OF DIS-
APPROVAL.—If a joint resolution of disapproval relating 
to notification described in section 4(b) passes both 
Houses of Congress, the President may not take any ac-
tion relating to the pause, suspension, delay, or abrogation 
to the delivery of covered defense articles or defense serv-
ices described in such notification for a period of 12 cal-
endar days after the date of passage of the joint resolution 
of disapproval, unless the President sooner vetoes the joint 
resolution of disapproval. 
(d) LIMITATION
ON ACTIONS DURING CONGRES-
SIONAL RECONSIDERATION OF A JOINT RESOLUTION OF 
DISAPPROVAL.—If the President vetoes the joint resolu-
tion of disapproval, the President may not take the action 
described in such notification for a period of 10 calendar 
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days after the date of the President’s veto, unless the joint 
resolution sooner fails of passage on reconsideration in ei-
ther House. 
(e) EFFECT OF ENACTMENT OF A JOINT RESOLU-
TION
OF DISAPPROVAL.—If a joint resolution of dis-
approval relating to notification described in section 4(b) 
is enacted into law, the President may not take any action 
relating to the pause, suspension, delay, or abrogation to 
the delivery of covered defense articles or services to Israel 
described in such notification for a period of 180 days, 
at which point, the President must submit a new notifica-
tion relating to such action. 
(f) JOINT RESOLUTIONS OF DISAPPROVAL.— 
(1) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term 
‘‘joint resolution of disapproval’’ means only a joint 
resolution of either House of Congress— 
(A) the title of which is as follows: ‘‘A joint 
resolution disapproving the President’s proposal 
to pause, suspend, delay, or abrogate the deliv-
ery of covered defense articles or defense serv-
ices to Israel.’’; and 
(B) the sole matter after the resolving 
clause of which is the following: ‘‘Congress dis-
approves of the action relating to pause, sus-
pend, delay, or abrogate the delivery of covered 
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defense articles or defense services to Israel 
proposed by the President in the notification 
described in section 4(b) of the Maintaining 
Our Ironclad Commitment to Israel’s Security 
Act on lllll relating to lllll., 
with the first blank space being filled with the 
appropriate date and the second blank space 
being filled with a short description of the pro-
posed action. 
(2) INTRODUCTION.—During the period of 15 
calendar days provided for under subsection (b)(1), 
a joint resolution of disapproval may be intro-
duced— 
(A) in the House of Representatives, by 
the majority leader or the minority leader; and 
(B) in the Senate, by the majority leader 
(or the majority leader’s designee) or the mi-
nority leader (or the minority leader’s des-
ignee). 
(3) FLOOR CONSIDERATION IN HOUSE OF REP-
RESENTATIVES.— 
(A) REPORTING
AND
DISCHARGE.—If a 
committee of the House of Representatives to 
which a joint resolution of disapproval has been 
referred has not reported the joint resolution 
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tion except 2 hours of debate equally divided 
and controlled by the sponsor of the joint reso-
lution (or a designee) and an opponent. A mo-
tion to reconsider the vote on passage of the 
joint resolution shall not be in order. 
(4) CONSIDERATION IN THE SENATE.— 
(A) COMMITTEE REFERRAL.—A joint reso-
lution of disapproval introduced in the Senate 
shall be referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations. 
(B) REPORTING AND DISCHARGE.—If the 
Committee on Foreign Relations has not re-
ported the joint resolution within 5 calendar 
days after the date of referral of the joint reso-
lution, that committee shall be discharged from 
further consideration of the joint resolution and 
the joint resolution shall be placed on the ap-
propriate calendar. 
(C) PROCEEDING
TO
CONSIDERATION.— 
Notwithstanding Rule XXII of the Standing 
Rules of the Senate, it is in order at any time 
after the Committee on Foreign Relations re-
ports a joint resolution of disapproval to the 
Senate or has been discharged from consider-
ation of such a joint resolution (even though a 
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previous motion to the same effect has been dis-
agreed to) to move to proceed to the consider-
ation of the joint resolution, and all points of 
order against the joint resolution (and against 
consideration of the joint resolution) are 
waived. The motion to proceed is not debatable. 
The motion is not subject to a motion to post-
pone. A motion to reconsider the vote by which 
the motion is agreed to or disagreed to shall not 
be in order. 
(D) RULINGS OF THE CHAIR ON PROCE-
DURE.—Appeals from the decisions of the Chair 
relating to the application of the rules of the 
Senate, as the case may be, to the procedure re-
lating to a joint resolution of disapproval shall 
be decided without debate. 
(E) 
CONSIDERATION
OF
VETO
MES-
SAGES.—Debate in the Senate of any veto mes-
sage with respect to a joint resolution of dis-
approval, including all debatable motions and 
appeals in connection with the joint resolution, 
shall be limited to 10 hours, to be equally di-
vided between, and controlled by, the majority 
leader and the minority leader or their des-
ignees. 
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(5) RULES RELATING TO SENATE AND HOUSE 
OF REPRESENTATIVES.— 
(A) COORDINATION
WITH
ACTION
BY 
OTHER HOUSE.—If, before the passage by one 
House of a joint resolution of that House, that 
House receives a joint resolution from the other 
House, then the following procedures shall 
apply: 
(i) The joint resolution of the other 
House shall not be referred to a com-
mittee. 
(ii) With respect to a joint resolution 
of the House receiving the legislation— 
(I) the procedure in that House 
shall be the same as if no joint resolu-
tion had been received from the other 
House; but 
(II) the vote on passage shall be 
on the joint resolution of the other 
House. 
(B) TREATMENT OF A JOINT RESOLUTION 
OF OTHER HOUSE.—If one House fails to intro-
duce a joint resolution under this section, the 
joint resolution of the other House shall be en-
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titled to expedited floor procedures under this 
section. 
(C) TREATMENT
OF
COMPANION
MEAS-
URES.—If, following passage of the joint resolu-
tion in the Senate, the Senate then receives a 
companion measure from the House of Rep-
resentatives, the companion measure shall not 
be debatable. 
(D) APPLICATION
TO
REVENUE
MEAS-
URES.—The provisions of this paragraph shall 
not apply in the House of Representatives to a 
joint resolution of disapproval that is a revenue 
measure. 
(6) RULES
OF
HOUSE
OF
REPRESENTATIVES 
AND SENATE.—This subsection is enacted by Con-
gress— 
(A) as an exercise of the rulemaking power 
of the Senate and the House of Representa-
tives, respectively, and as such is deemed a part 
of the rules of each House, respectively, and su-
persedes other rules only to the extent that it 
is inconsistent with such rules; and 
(B) with full recognition of the constitu-
tional right of either House to change the rules 
(so far as relating to the procedure of that 
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House) at any time, in the same manner, and 
to the same extent as in the case of any other 
rule of that House. 
SEC. 6. COVERED DEFENSE ARTICLES AND DEFENSE SERV-
ICES DEFINED. 
In this Act, the term ‘‘covered defense articles and 
defense services’’ means those defense articles and defense 
services that are provided under any of the following au-
thorities: 
(1) Section 3 of the Arms Export Control Act 
(22 U.S.C. 2753). 
(2) Section 36 of the Arms Export Control Act 
(22 U.S.C. 2776). 
(3) Section 506 of the Foreign Assistance Act 
of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2318). 
(4) Section 614 of the Foreign Assistance Act 
of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2364). 
Æ 
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