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The US has offered Saudi Arabia $115 billion worth of arms during Barack Obama’s two terms as president, an anti-war think tank counted, arguing that this should give Washington enough leverage to pressure Riyadh to prevent civilian casualties in Yemen.

Weapons have been sold to Saudi Arabia in 42 separate deals since 2009, William Hartung of the US-based Center for International Policy, a non-profit group that has been advocating demilitarization since 1975, reported on Wednesday.

The Obama administration has offered to sell $115bn worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia over its eight years in office, more than any previous US administration, according to a new report.

The surge in sales is in part to reassure the Saudi monarchy of US backing in the wake of last year’s nuclear deal with Tehran, which raised fears in the Gulf that Washington would tilt more towards Tehran in its foreign policy.

The pressure on the Obama administration to stop selling weapons to Saudi Arabia is mounting.

Senators from both sides of the aisle introduced a joint resolution on Thursday, hoping to block a large U.S. arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

S.J.Res 39 was introduced by Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah). Explaining their motivation, all four cited the atrocities committed by the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

The years-long tussle over land use at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ sprawling 388-acre West Los Angeles campus took an important step closer to being resolved Tuesday. Yet even as the department made real strides locally, the efforts to deliver more services to veterans on the campus remain hampered by inaction in Congress.

A bipartisan push against a $1.15 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia is gaining steam in protest of Riyadh’s bombing campaign in Yemen — but remains split on whether to oppose the sale or block it outright.

Multiple congressional aides tell Foreign Policy that Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut are preparing legislation, to be filed this week, opposing the U.S. package of tanks, ammunition, and machine guns to Saudi Arabia.

Last fall, ExxonMobil executives hurried along the hushed, art-filled halls of the company’s Irving, Texas, headquarters, a 178-acre suburban complex some employees facetiously call “the Death Star,” to a series of emergency strategy meetings. The world’s largest oil explorer by market value had been hit by a pair of multipart investigations by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times. Both reported that as early as the 1970s, the company understood more about climate change than it had let on and had deliberately misled the public about it.

More than 60 lawmakers in the House are fighting to delay the Obama administration's planned sale of $1.15 billion in arms and military equipment to Saudi Arabia, citing the growing number of civilian casualties in Yemen caused by the Saudi-led military coalition.

In a longshot bid to stall the sale, the bipartisan group of 64 House members, led by California Rep. Ted Lieu, has called on the White House to withdraw the request for congressional approval for the sale until Congress can fully debate American military support for the Saudis.