Bryan Steil

Deep Dive

Bryan Steil has represented southeastern Wisconsin's 1st District since January 3, 2019. He chairs the Committee on House Administration and sits on the Financial Services Committee. He advanced from the Republican primary on August 11, 2026 and is running on November 3, 2026 against Mitchell Berman, the Democratic nominee; the two of them are the only candidates on the ballot.

He has issued no statement of his own about what the United States should send to the government of Israel, and what he has said on the record has mostly come out of being asked. In April 2025 he co-sponsored H.R. 1229, the United States-Israel Defense Partnership Act, which would increase defense-related cooperation with the government of Israel, per the Congressional Research Service. At a Washington breakfast hosted by the news service WisPolitics on March 21, 2024, with a foreign aid package sitting in the House after the Senate passed it, he said providing weapons to Ukraine and the government of Israel is in the interest of American national security. He wanted the bill paid for out of the interest on Russian state assets frozen in the United States rather than out of borrowing: "Russia could fund the weapons that are being utilized to remove Russian equipment. I don't think that's a terrible idea". He would not say whether he wanted new border measures attached to it.

The principle behind that is older, and he put it plainly the first time. In May 2019 he cosponsored H.R. 336 and signed a discharge petition to force a vote on it; the package it carried included legislation authorizing security assistance to the government of Israel. "Ensuring Israel has the resources to defend itself and uphold our shared values is critical", he said at the time.

On what the United States should send to Palestinians there is nothing: not humanitarian money for Gaza, not the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, not the aid pipeline, in either direction. The nearest he has come was at a town hall at Elkhorn Area High School on July 31, 2025, where a man stood up and asked what he had to say about two million people starving in Gaza. Steil answered that "To me, the easy answer to address this crisis is for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages." and that "Israel was unfairly, unjustly attacked, their civilians were killed and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists." He got as far as "Israel has a right to defend itself" before the shouting stopped him, and the moderator ended the event.

How he reads the war he has said more readily. After the Israeli prime minister addressed Congress in July 2024 he said "For more than 75 years, Israel has been America’s close ally in the Middle East" and that the two countries "share a strong commitment to free all of the hostages, including Americans, and defeat Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists." Two months before that, when the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee settled with student demonstrators, he said the university should "uphold the law, punish those who broke the rules, and maintain its business, investment, and academic relationships with Israel".

His law cutting off financing for Hamas, his letters about Iran, his 2019 trip to Israel and what he has said about antisemitism on campus are on his research page.

The record

Supported sending weapons or funding in 6 of 6 tracked votes

The money

$28K in lifetime support from the five lobbying groups we track

In their words

AIPAC (2026 endorsement)

Research log

The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.

Every page named below was opened and read on 2026-09-20 unless the entry says otherwise. His congressional newsroom was read in full: 500 items across all 50 pages of the press release listing and 196 items across all 20 pages of the in-the-news listing, every title checked against this subject and every match opened. His official issues page on national security and his campaign site were read in full. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. His recorded House votes are shown in this card's record section and are not restated here; his cosponsorship of H.R. 1229 is set out below.

U.S. military aid and weapons to the government of Israel

• [Position, 2024-03-21] Spectrum News 1's report of a Washington breakfast hosted by the news service WisPolitics, by Charlotte Scott, headlined "Janesville Rep. Bryan Steil speaks on federal budget, foreign aid at D.C. breakfast". The in-scope sentence is the reporter's rendering of what he said: "Steil said providing weapons to Ukraine and Israel is in the interest of U.S. national security. To avoid adding to the nation's debt, he suggests Congress could pay for the assistance by using the interest from Russian state assets that have been frozen in the U.S. in retaliation for Russia's invasion of Ukraine." His own words in the piece are about how to pay for it: "Russia could fund the weapons that are being utilized to remove Russian equipment. I don't think that's a terrible idea". On whether he would demand border measures in exchange, the report says he would not commit, and quotes him: "In an ideal situation, I just don't know what the bill is that will come before the House". The page's own structured data gives a published date of 2024-03-21T17:48:00-04:00.
• [Position, 2025-04-17] Co-sponsor of H.R. 1229, the United States-Israel Defense Partnership Act of 2025: Congress.gov's cosponsor list shows "Rep. Steil, Bryan [R-WI-1]" with the date 04/17/2025, and BillTrack50 lists "Bryan Steil (R)" among the bill's 182 sponsors. The Congressional Research Service summary says the bill "requires or authorizes certain actions to increase defense-related cooperation between the United States and Israel", including a cooperative program against unmanned systems and an extension of the Defense Department's authority to "transfer defense articles intended for use as reserve stocks for Israel through January 1, 2029." No statement of his about the bill was located.
• [Earlier record, 2019-05-15] His release on signing the discharge petition for H.R. 336, the Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act of 2019, which he also cosponsored. The release explains that the package was made up of four bills, the first of which it describes as "The Ileana Ros-Lehtinen United States-Israel Security Assistance Act of 2019—legislation that authorizes security assistance to Israel." His statement in full: "Anti-Semitism around the world must be rejected. Israel and the Jewish people continue to face threats from Iran, Syria, and Russia. Ensuring Israel has the resources to defend itself and uphold our shared values is critical. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement represents a direct economic and political threat to one of America's most important allies. Speaker Pelosi should bring this bill to a vote to support Israel," said Steil. This is the oldest item used on the card and it is used as history.
• [Earlier record, 2019-08-20] The Racine Journal Times interview after his congressional delegation trip, reposted on his own official site. Two passages bear on this dimension. On the missile defense system: "(The iron dome is) heavily funded by the United States and it has the technological capabilities to effectively shoot down a missile while it's flying through the air," and "I went and visited one of these iron dome sites where they have the missile ready to launch in the case missiles are shot at Israel, which is a regular occurrence, and that relationship between the United States and Israel where that's clearly a defensive tool … you walk away with a real clear perspective of the importance of our support in Israel." And on his own votes: the reporter writes that he is voting on issues that affect Israel "on a regular basis" when it comes to foreign aid and other policies, and quotes him saying "As those votes come before Congress, I think it's important that I'm able to gain that context of seeing it on the ground firsthand". The missile defense passages are recorded here.
• [Position; the page is undated for this purpose and was read 2026-09-20] His official issues page on national security names Iran, Russia, China and cybercriminals as the threats he is concerned with. It does not mention Israel, Gaza, Palestinians or foreign aid at all.
• [Position, 2024-04-26 or 2024-04-18; not read] PBS Wisconsin's "Here & Now" interview, "US Rep Bryan Steil on Foreign Policy and the 2024 Election". The clip's page on pbs.org opened and describes it: "U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, discusses his positions on congressional votes on aid for Ukraine, Israel and more as foreign policy issues grow more prominent in the presidential election year." It is a six-minute, forty-second video and no video was watched for this card. The PBS Wisconsin page our research cited (https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/here-now-highlights-us-rep-bryan-steil-peter-barca-rick-abrams-ananth-seshadri/ ) refused every attempt. Our research summarized the interview as support for supplying lethal military aid to allies including Israel while cautioning against unfunded non-military humanitarian spending; that summary is not confirmed and nothing on the card rests on it. The two pages also disagree about the date: our research and the PBS Wisconsin page title give April 26, 2024, and the pbs.org clip page prints 4/18/2024.
• Nothing located in which he discusses the dollar figure in the memorandum of understanding between the United States and the government of Israel, or any condition on that money, or any particular arms sale, or either of the amendments to cut that aid on which his votes are recorded.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

• Nothing located at any date. All 500 press releases, all 196 in-the-news items, the national security issues page and the campaign site carry no statement about humanitarian funding for Gaza, about the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, about the aid pipeline or about the American pier, in either direction.
• [Position, 2025-07-31] The one time he is on the record answering a question about the humanitarian situation is the town hall at Elkhorn Area High School, reported by CNN. A man in the audience shouted "Two million people in Gaza are starving – what do you have to say about that?" and, after a police officer approached him, a second audience member pressed the question. Steil answered: "To me, the easy answer to address this crisis is for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages. That ends the war tomorrow," and "Israel was unfairly, unjustly attacked, their civilians were killed and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists." He then said "Israel has a right to defend itself," and paused amid shouting; the moderator closed the event. His answer says nothing about what the United States should send or withhold, which is why the card says so plainly.

Characterization of the conflict

• [Position, 2024-07-24] His statement after the Israeli prime minister's address to a joint session of Congress, in full: "For more than 75 years, Israel has been America’s close ally in the Middle East. Today, I was proud to join many of my colleagues in reaffirming the bond between our two nations by welcoming Prime Minister Netanyahu to Congress. We share a strong commitment to free all of the hostages, including Americans, and defeat Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists."
• [Position, 2025-07-31] The town hall answers quoted above.
• [Earlier record, 2019-08-19] CBS 58's report on his return from the trip, reposted on his official site. It records that the delegation met the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization as well as Israeli leaders, quotes him saying "I think it's important to realize that the trip, the bipartisan group, met with both Israelis and Palestinians. It was an opportunity to ask tough questions of leadership of both sides", and reports that he "believes there needs to be a peaceful resolution between Israel and Palestine, but believes the U.S. needs to stand by its ally, Israel." Spectrum News 1's interview of August 21, 2019 and NBC15's of August 30, 2019 cover the same trip.
• [Reaction window, 2023-10-11] His release on a letter sent the day before about financial sanctions on Iran. Not on the card summary because of its date, and about Iran in any event. The letter itself, at https://steil.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/steil.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/potus-iran-sanctions-enforcement_hamas-attack-on-israel.pdf , downloads but is a scanned image with no selectable text, so nothing is taken from the document itself.
• He has not used the words genocide or apartheid about this war in anything read for this card, and nothing located has him answering a question about either.

Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying

• [Position, 2024-05-13] His statement on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's agreement with student demonstrators, in full: "UW-Milwaukee should not have caved to the demands of protestors and rewarded bad behavior. Instead of caving, the university should uphold the law, punish those who broke the rules, and maintain its business, investment, and academic relationships with Israel." And: "The university leadership did this to avoid any protests at commencement. In other words, university leadership thought the risk of enforcing the rules following a disruption at commencement was so great it was willing to break ties with our ally Israel. This is unacceptable. All the more so when Hamas continues to hold over 100 innocent hostages."
• [Position, 2024-04-20 and 2024-04-24] His own legislation on financing for Hamas, the End Financing for Hamas and State Sponsors of Terrorism Act, H.R. 6632, when it passed the House and when it was signed into law. The law requires the Treasury Secretary to work with the Group of Seven on a strategy to make Hamas incapable of financing armed hostilities against the government of Israel, and to report to Congress on Hamas's sources of money. His words: "During a time of war, terrorism, and instability in the Middle East, it is important to ensure sanctions are not only on the books but enforced to their fullest extent," and "This law ensures we are using every tool in our toolbox to deny Hamas revenue to fund violent attacks targeting Israel, Jews, and American personnel throughout the Middle East." This is money the United States would stop flowing to Hamas, not money or weapons it would send to anyone, which is why it is here rather than on the card.
• [Position, 2024-09-12] His letter pressing the Treasury Department to publish that report early, after the killing of six hostages including the American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Same subject, same reason for being here.
• [Position, 2024-06-20] His letters to the Internal Revenue Service and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network about American nonprofits and terrorist financing, prompted by reports about a contributor to The Palestine Chronicle. A domestic tax and financial-crimes question, not a question about what America sends.
• [Reaction window, 2023-11-09] The introduction of that bill with Rep. Brittany Pettersen. Not on the card summary because of its date. Its committee passage is in the same archive.
• [Earlier record, 2019-05-15] The same May 2019 statement quoted above also calls the boycott and divestment movement "a direct economic and political threat to one of America's most important allies".
• [Position, 2024-02-15] The Racine County Eye's report that constituents and the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine, a coalition of more than sixty member organizations, planned to deliver valentines to his Janesville office asking him to vote against a $14 billion military aid bill. The article is built entirely from the coalition's press release and carries no words of his and no response from his office. Nothing from it is on the card. The coalition's release also carries casualty figures, which are not reproduced here.
• [Undated; read 2026-09-20] An account on X called AIPAC Tracker publishes a figure for what it says he has received from pro-Israel political committees, at https://x.com/TrackAIPAC/status/1787561406914863436 , and a site called Who Funds My Rep publishes a different figure at https://whofundsmyrep.com/rep/bryan-steil . Neither was matched to a primary campaign-finance record here, this record carries no funding total, and nothing is built on either. The addresses are printed so a reader can look for themselves.
• No statement of his about any lobbying organization on this subject was located.

Safety and antisemitism (context, not an answer to what America sends)

• [Position, 2024-05-01] His statement on House passage of the Antisemitism Awareness Act: "I stand with students who are facing antisemitic threats on college campuses across the country. I was proud to vote for the Antisemitism Awareness Act to protect students from antisemitic abuse and hold administrators accountable." The release notes that he was a regent of the University of Wisconsin system from 2016 to 2018.
• [Earlier record, 2019-05-15] "Anti-Semitism around the world must be rejected," the opening sentence of the May 2019 statement.

What the campaign site and own pages say

• [Read 2026-09-20] His campaign site and its issues page, which run to about two thousand words on the economy, the border, seniors, veterans, workers, families and the Second Amendment. A search of both for israel, gaza, palestin, hamas, antisemit, jewish, foreign, middle east and weapon returns nothing.
• [Read 2026-09-20] His official issues page on national security, described above.
• [Read 2026-09-20] His Ballotpedia page records that he assumed office on January 3, 2019, that his current term ends on January 3, 2027, and that in the 2025-2026 Congress he chairs the Committee on House Administration and the Joint Committee on the Library and sits on the Committee on Financial Services. It also records that he has not completed Ballotpedia's 2026 candidate survey.

The race

• [Read 2026-09-20] Ballotpedia's page for the 2026 election in Wisconsin's 1st District: "Incumbent Bryan Steil and Mitchell Berman are running in the general election for U.S. House Wisconsin District 1 on November 3, 2026." The general election is November 3, 2026, Wisconsin's partisan primary was August 11, 2026 and the filing deadline was June 1, 2026. Steil advanced from the Republican primary with 99.6 percent and 50,915 votes, and the results are marked certified; Mitchell Berman won the Democratic primary with 44.1 percent and 31,493 votes over Peter Burgelis, Lorenzo Santos and Miguel Aranda. Adam Follmer, of The Common Class Party, is listed as withdrawn or disqualified. Ballotpedia prints its own caution that the candidate list may not be complete.
• [Read 2026-09-20] The Wisconsin Elections Commission's ballot access report for the 2026 general election, the staff memorandum for the commission's June 9, 2026 meeting, printed June 8, 2026. Under "Office : REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS DISTRICT 1" it lists six filings: Lorenzo J. Santos, Peter Burgelis, Mitchell Berman and Miguel Aranda as Democrats and Bryan Steil as a Republican, all marked Approve, and Adam Follmer of The Common Class, marked Deny. That is the official source for the two-candidate field.
• Mitchell Berman's record is on his own card and is not narrated here.

Places that could not be read, so nothing is claimed from them

• https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/here-now-highlights-us-rep-bryan-steil-peter-barca-rick-abrams-ananth-seshadri/ and https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/us-rep-bryan-steil-on-foreign-policy-and-the-2024-election/ , the pages carrying the April 2024 "Here & Now" interview. Both refused every attempt on 2026-09-20. The clip's page on pbs.org opened and is used only for the description quoted above.
• https://www.facebook.com/wxow19/posts/rep-bryan-steil-said-israel-has-a-right-to-defend-itself-but-paused-amid-shoutin/1392657156198738/ , a local television station's post about the same town hall. It did not open. CNN's report of the event opened and is what the card uses.
• https://www.beloitdailynews.com/news/local-news/congressman-steil-gets-mixed-response-at-elkhorn-event/article_66bf37e2-d3d4-4721-9f6b-ea74242a8599.html , a second local report of the town hall, returned 451 on every attempt.
• The October 2023 letter at https://steil.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/steil.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/potus-iran-sanctions-enforcement_hamas-attack-on-israel.pdf downloads but is a scanned image, so its text could not be read. Its subject is described by the press release that carries it, and the date puts it out of the card summary in any event.
• His accounts on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube, and every video named anywhere in this record. No video was watched for this card.

Not on the card, and why

• Everything dated between October 7, 2023 and January 25, 2024: the October 2023 letter about sanctions on Iran and the November 2023 introduction of the Hamas financing bill. Both are on this page with their dates, and no date, quoted span or paraphrase from either appears in the card front, the deep dive or the quotations. A later release of his refers back to both; nothing from those passages is used.
• Everything he has said about Iran: the sanctions waiver letters of October 2023 and March 2024, the bills to maintain and enforce sanctions on Iran, the amendments about Iranian-backed militias, and the rest of an Iran file that runs through his whole career. A different question from what the United States sends to the government of Israel.
• His law on financing for Hamas and his letters to the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. They are about stopping money reaching Hamas, not about what America sends to the government of Israel or to Palestinians. All are set out above with their dates.
• What he said about the missile defense system on his 2019 trip. The front does not discuss defensive systems; the passages are above.
• The campus antisemitism material, including the Antisemitism Awareness Act statement. Context about safety, not an answer to what America sends.
• The Racine County Eye report of the February 2024 valentine delivery, and the campaign-finance figures published by an advocacy account and a tracking site. Other people's words and unverified numbers; all three addresses are above.
• The casualty figures in the coalition's press release, which are not reproduced.
• Mitchell Berman's record. Another candidate's record belongs on that candidate's own card.
• The economy, border, election administration, housing, veterans and financial services material that fills almost all of his newsroom and all of his campaign site. Out of scope.
• The recorded votes. They are shown in this card's record section, and the prose narrates no roll call. The H.R. 1229 cosponsorship is also shown there and is named once in the deep dive.

Sources retrieved for this card (address; opened or could not open; date)

• https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases and the 500 items across its 50 listing pages (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/in-the-news and the 196 items across its 20 listing pages (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases/steil-signs-onto-bill-forcing-vote-on-legislation-supporting-israel (opened; 2026-09-20; article:published_time 2019-05-15T17:31:50-04:00)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases/steil-statement-on-israeli-prime-minister-netanyahu-address-to-congress (opened; 2026-09-20; article:published_time 2024-07-24T16:34:21-04:00)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases/steil-statement-on-uwm-s-decision-caving-to-anti-israel-protestors (opened; 2026-09-20; article:published_time 2024-05-13T11:12:52-04:00)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases/steil-statement-on-house-passage-of-antisemitism-awareness-act (opened; 2026-09-20; article:published_time 2024-05-01T17:19:54-04:00)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases/steil-legislation-to-block-financing-for-hamas-signed-into-law (opened; 2026-09-20; article:published_time 2024-04-24T11:15:33-04:00)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases/steil-legislation-to-block-financing-for-hamas-passes-the-house (opened; 2026-09-20; article:published_time 2024-04-20T10:49:28-04:00)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases/steil-calls-on-biden-harris-admin-to-expose-financing-behind-iran-backed-hamas (opened; 2026-09-20; article:published_time 2024-09-12T13:07:21-04:00)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases/steil-calls-on-federal-agencies-to-ensure-us-nonprofits-are-not-supporting-terrorist-activity (opened; 2026-09-20; article:published_time 2024-06-20T14:36:00-04:00)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases/steil-pettersen-introduce-legislation-to-end-financing-for-hamas-and-state-sponsors-of-terrorism (opened; 2026-09-20; article:published_time 2023-11-09T15:50:08-05:00)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases/steil-pettersen-s-bill-to-cut-off-iran-s-ability-to-fund-hamas-advances-through-house-financial-services-committee (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases/steil-demands-president-biden-enforce-financial-sanctions-on-iran (opened; 2026-09-20; article:published_time 2023-10-11T16:28:16-04:00)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases/steil-urges-president-biden-to-enforce-sanctions-against-iran (opened; 2026-09-20; article:published_time 2024-03-11T18:27:30-04:00)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/in-the-news/steil-tlaib-and-omar-made-a-choice-not-to-join-the-trip-to-israel (opened; 2026-09-20; article:published_time 2019-08-20T09:12:12-04:00)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/in-the-news/opportunity-to-ask-tough-questions-rep-steil-members-of-congress-return-from-trip-to-israel (opened; 2026-09-20; dated 2019-08-19)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/in-the-news/rep-bryan-steil-members-of-congress-return-from-trip-to-israel (opened; 2026-09-20; dated 2019-08-21)
• https://steil.house.gov/media/in-the-news/rep-bryan-steil-reflects-on-bipartisan-trip-to-israel (opened; 2026-09-20; dated 2019-08-30)
• https://steil.house.gov/issues/national-security (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/news/2024/03/21/bryan-steil-federal-budget-foreign-aid (opened; 2026-09-20; datePublished 2024-03-21T17:48:00-04:00)
• https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/31/politics/bryan-steil-wisconsin-event (opened; 2026-09-20; article:published_time 2025-08-01T01:49:07.025Z, event Thursday July 31, 2025)
• https://www.pbs.org/video/us-rep-bryan-steil-on-foreign-policy-and-the-2024-election-3rmp2e (opened; 2026-09-20; the video itself was not watched)
• https://racinecountyeye.com/2024/02/15/steil-constituents-no-israel-aid/ (opened; 2026-09-20; dated February 15, 2024)
• https://bryansteil.com/ and https://bryansteil.com/issues/ (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin%27s_1st_Congressional_District_election,_2026 and https://ballotpedia.org/Bryan_Steil (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://elections.wi.gov/sites/default/files/documents/D.%20Ballot%20Access%20Report%206.9.2026.pdf (opened; 2026-09-20; printed June 8, 2026 for the June 9, 2026 commission meeting)
• https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1229/cosponsors and https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1229 (opened; 2026-09-26)
• https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/here-now-highlights-us-rep-bryan-steil-peter-barca-rick-abrams-ananth-seshadri/ , https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/us-rep-bryan-steil-on-foreign-policy-and-the-2024-election/ , https://www.beloitdailynews.com/news/local-news/congressman-steil-gets-mixed-response-at-elkhorn-event/article_66bf37e2-d3d4-4721-9f6b-ea74242a8599.html and https://www.facebook.com/wxow19/posts/rep-bryan-steil-said-israel-has-a-right-to-defend-itself-but-paused-amid-shoutin/1392657156198738/ (could not open; 2026-09-20)
• https://steil.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/steil.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/potus-iran-sanctions-enforcement_hamas-attack-on-israel.pdf (downloads but is a scanned image with no readable text; 2026-09-20)
• This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-20, not a claim that no other statement exists.