The House will vote later this week on a bill that would allow 9/11 victims’ families to sue Saudi Arabia in USA court, according to a House GOP leadership aide.
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“This legislation would change long-standing, worldwide law regarding sovereign immunity”, said White House spokesman Josh Earnest said back in May, after the Senate unanimously approved the bill.
Rejecting the legislation could put the president at risk of suffering a veto override supported by members of his own party, something that has never before happened during his time in the White House.
The White House again signaled Friday it would veto the measure, because it would essentially waive the doctrine of sovereign immunity that protects nation states from civil suits or criminal prosecution. The ease with which it cleared the House, combined with the bill’s unanimous passage in the Senate in May, suggests that a presidential veto would likely be overturned. The Obama administration cautions that if US citizens can take the Saudis to court, then a foreign country could in turn sue the United States. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. And others fear Saudi Arabia may follow through on threats it reportedly made earlier this year to sell off its holdings of U.S. Treasury debt and other assets in the U.S.
“It could put the United States and our taxpayers and our service members and our diplomats at significant risk if other countries were to adopt a similar law”, White House Spokesman Josh Earnest said last April.
Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal.
The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act had triggered a threat from Riyadh to pull billions of dollars from the US economy if the legislation is enacted.
The move to vote in the House was first reported by Politico.
The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act had triggered a threat from Riyadh to pull billions of dollars from the USA economy if the legislation is enacted.
Under current law, victims of terror attacks can only sue countries officially designated by the State Department as sponsors of terrorism, such as Iran and Syria.
Congress in July released 28 previously secret pages detailing suspicious Saudi ties to the 9/11 hijackers, but the report failed to include a smoking gun definitively linking the kingdom to the terrorist attacks. Poe said he doesn’t know if the Saudi government had a role in the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people.
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“The victims of 9-11 and other terrorist attacks on U.S. soil have suffered much pain and heartache, but they should not be denied justice, and so, I am telling the House: pass this bill”, Schumer said in a statement Wednesday.
