End the informal congressional review of arms sales
What the document says“End the tiered review process to eliminate at least 20 days from the FMS process.”
Tiered review is the practice by which the State Department previews prospective arms transfers with Congress before formal notification. The chapter notes it is not written into law, says ending it would remove at least 20 days from the process, and says it should be used only where unanimous congressional support is guaranteed, to prevent what it calls weaponisation by individual Members.
What the document actually says“End the tiered review process to eliminate at least 20 days from the FMS process.”
End the early review step. That would cut at least 20 days from arms sales.
The United States sells weapons to other countries. Before a sale, Congress gets a quiet early look. The book says this is not required by law. It says dropping it would speed sales up.
Reforming Foreign Defense Sales To Improve Speed and Accountability
2025-04-09 · 90 FR 15631
The order is aimed at the delay the chapter wants removed. It directs the Secretaries of State and Defense to send Congress a joint letter proposing higher statutory notification thresholds for foreign military sales and direct commercial sales, and directs the Secretary of State to work with Congress to review notification processes so that notified cases are adjudicated in time. It also orders priority partner and priority end-item lists and a single electronic tracking system. What the proposal asks for is not done: tiered review, the informal preview of prospective transfers with Congress, is never mentioned and is not ended, no days are removed from the process by the order itself, and the route is through Congress and statutory thresholds rather than by dropping a State Department practice that is not written into law.
The order goes after the same delay in foreign arms sales. It asks Congress to raise the level at which a sale must be reported. It also sets up one tracking system. But the informal step the chapter wanted dropped is never named, and no days are cut by the order itself.
2 agency rules
- International Traffic in Arms Regulations: Exemption for Defense Trade and Cooperation Among Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United StatesState Department · December 30, 2025
- International Traffic in Arms Regulations: USML Category I Firearm SuppressorsState Department · July 23, 2026
Each of these names the order above in its own summary, preamble or filing. That is a fact about the document, not a finding that it carries out this proposal: it is one step further away than the order is, and what it does about the proposal is a reading nobody has made here.