Rep. Pat Ryan co-sponsored HR 3565, the Block the Bombs Act, on July 15, 2026. He signed alongside Rep. Nellie Pou (D-NJ-9), bringing the total to 80.
Rep. Delia Ramirez introduced the bill on May 21, 2025. Ryan signed 420 days later. Seventy-eight members signed before him.
It is the first bill restricting weapons transfers to Israel that Ryan has ever co-sponsored. It came on the same day he voted to cut $3.3 billion in Israel aid and pledged to dump AIPAC.
The move is welcome. It is also the direct result of people who refused to let the question go.
What the bill does
The Block the Bombs Act would prohibit the transfer of specific offensive weapons to Israel: BLU-109 bunker-busting bombs, MK80 series bombs, Joint Direct Attack Munitions, 120mm tank ammunition, and 155mm artillery shells including white phosphorus.
Ramirez introduced it with Reps. Sara Jacobs, Pramila Jayapal, and Mark Pocan.
What it took
Constituents have been asking Ryan for this since the first month of the assault on Gaza.
In October 2023, 150 people gathered outside his Poughkeepsie office asking him to co-sponsor a ceasefire resolution. He never did. Hundreds returned to his Kingston office that November. In April 2024, after he voted for $26.38 billion in military aid, more than 100 protesters came back. That October, students confronted AOC at SUNY New Paltz over Ryan's AIPAC money. The complete two-year record documents the rest.
On September 10, 2025, Doctors Against Genocide delivered 366 petition signatures to his DC office — 210 from NY-18. They asked him directly whether he would sign. He told them he was "getting there" and needed to hear from more constituents. Forty-five members had already signed.
By November, more than 500 Hudson Valley residents had signed petitions, and his office was answering them with a form letter.
On December 23, 2025, he co-sponsored a different Palestine bill — the West Bank Violence Prevention Act, which does not touch weapons transfers. HR 3565 had 59 co-sponsors that day. He did not sign it.
He signed 204 days after that, and 308 days after "I'm getting there."
What hasn't changed
Ryan's prior votes stand. He voted for $26.38 billion in weapons to Israel in April 2024. He was one of 22 Democrats who voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib. He voted to sanction the ICC officials investigating Netanyahu and Gallant. He declined to co-sponsor any of the eight resolutions that would have blocked $12 billion in weapons transfers.
He has still not co-sponsored HR 2411 (UNRWA funding), H.Res.473 (humanitarian aid to Gaza), H.Res.409 (Nakba recognition), or H.Res.876 (genocide recognition).
And he has not said which of the AIPAC money he will return, to whom, or when.