James E Mr. Risch

Republican · U.S. Senate, Idaho

Risch chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He called the 2024 pause on precision weapons for the government of Israel a "horrible mistake", and helped lead a demand that U.S. money be permanently barred from the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. His recorded votes run the same way.

Risch is Idaho's senior senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, having been its ranking member before that. By his own account he is one of four members of Congress who sign off on major arms sales before they proceed, and that is the ground he argues from.

When the administration held back a shipment of precision weapons in May 2024, which was a pause on 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs, he spoke at a Senate Republican press conference and set out the objection: "Congress passed funding, the administration allowed these weapons sales", the four members had signed off, "and now in the heat of battle, this administration is saying" it would pull them back. He called that unprecedented, said it would be watched by both enemies and allies, and closed: "This was a horrible mistake." The day after, on the administration's report assessing the government of Israel's use of American weapons, he said it "has given Israel a politically damaging assessment while publicly announcing it is withholding a select set of precision weapons" and was attempting to placate voters on the far left at the expense of a close ally. He had already written to the administration with the House Foreign Affairs chairman asking that the reporting framework be repealed, and when it was revoked in February 2025 he called the repeal "excellent news".

On money for Palestinians he has been just as explicit, and in the opposite direction. In February 2024 he was one of three senators who led twenty-one colleagues in demanding that any national security bill carry "an immediate and permanent prohibition" of U.S. aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The letter's words are the twenty-four signatories' together: "The United States must permanently stop all contributions to UNRWA." He is also a Senate sponsor of a bill to hold that agency's funding until the State Department certifies it meets a list of conditions, which he first introduced in 2021.

He has argued against a different route for aid too. Objecting on the Senate floor in May 2025 to a resolution on conditions in Gaza, he said "we have no disagreement about the suffering that's going on in Gaza" and then placed the fault elsewhere: "This is not Israel's fault." His argument against sending food was practical rather than moral: "if we send trucks of food in there—who eats? The Hamas soldiers eat." He said the war could end at once if the hostages were released, and objected to the resolution because it did not "lay the fault where it belongs".

His recorded votes are on this card and they match all of it: every resolution that would have blocked a specific U.S. arms sale to the government of Israel, he voted against. Those sales were 120-millimetre tank rounds, high-explosive mortar rounds and JDAM bomb guidance kits in November 2024, roughly $8.8 billion of bombs and guidance kits in April 2025 including $2.04 billion of 2,000-pound bombs, 1,000-pound bombs with JDAM kits and automatic rifles in July 2025, and armoured bulldozers and 1,000-pound bombs in April 2026. By that last pair of votes the Gaza health ministry had reported 72,344 people killed, 20,179 of them children. Nothing on this record shows him supporting any condition, restriction or reduction on weapons for the government of Israel.

Tracked votes: backed sending U.S. weapons or funding to the government of Israel in 10 of 10 recorded votes.

Research

U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel

U.S. aid to Palestinians

⚠ **Twenty-four-signatory letter.** The words are the signers' together. The card says he helped lead the demand and quotes nothing to him alone.

Characterization of the conflict

Related rhetoric and lobbying

Safety and antisemitism (context)

Race and status context

Also in this race: Todd Baker Achilles (Independent), Natalie M Fleming (Other) · All Idaho candidates.

See the full record →

But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. Every claim on this page goes through at least two verification steps. Open the interactive card for votes, funding and contact details.