Senators move to block $5 billion bomb sale to Saudi Arabia

Three senators introduced a resolution on September 16 to block a $5 billion sale of American bomb kits to Saudi Arabia, forcing a Senate vote on a deal the State Department approved earlier this month.

Senators Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Bernie Sanders of Vermont filed the joint resolution of disapproval, S.J. Res. 216, which was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Because it is a joint resolution of disapproval, it is privileged legislation, meaning any senator can force a floor vote on it.

The resolution targets a sale the State Department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of on September 4. The notification put the total value at $5 billion and listed 5,004 KMU-572 JDAM guidance kits paired with 500-pound BLU-111 bombs, and 5,000 KMU-556 JDAM guidance kits paired with 2,000-pound BLU-117 bombs, along with fuze systems, target detectors, spare parts and support services. Boeing is the prime contractor.

The State Department’s notification said the sale would “improve the security of a Major non-NATO Ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in the Gulf Region” and would not alter the region’s military balance.

“The United States must not send thousands of conventional weapons to Saudi Arabia or allow it to develop a nuclear program,” Markey said, according to the New Bedford Guide. “I am deeply concerned by the Kingdom’s human rights abuses, the security of the region as the war in Iran rages on, and the proxy war that is escalating between Iran and Saudi Arabia in Yemen.”

The senators are separately pressing the administration over two side letters tied to a broader nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, which the administration has classified. Markey’s office said the classification of the letters is unprecedented and that “Congress and the public cannot fully assess what the United States and Saudi Arabia have agreed to without seeing them.”

That separate nuclear deal, known as a 123 agreement, would run for 30 years and would permit Saudi Arabia to pursue domestic uranium enrichment following a joint U.S.-Saudi study, according to Al Jazeera. Enrichment technology used for civilian nuclear power can also be used to produce weapons-grade material at higher levels. Congress can block the agreement only with a two-thirds majority in both chambers, enough to override a presidential veto. The proposed terms fall short of the “gold standard” the United Arab Emirates accepted in a 2009 nuclear cooperation deal with Washington, which barred enrichment and required inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to have expanded access under the agency’s Additional Protocol.

At the September 4 notification stage, the sale is a potential deal that Congress has the opportunity to reject before formal contract negotiations begin; if no disapproval resolution passes, the administration can proceed to finalize terms and a delivery schedule with Saudi Arabia.

Congressional Democrats have raised similar objections to a separate, larger arms package. Representatives Joaquin Castro of Texas and Ted Lieu of California have reintroduced legislation aimed at stopping Saudi Arabia from acquiring the technology needed to build nuclear weapons, working alongside Markey and Merkley on the Senate side.

The disapproval resolution comes as Saudi Arabia and Iran back opposing sides in Yemen’s civil war, a conflict the United Nations has called one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has not yet scheduled a vote on S.J. Res. 216.