Obama would veto the bill and warned of “unintended consequences”, saying the bill would “change longstanding global law regarding sovereign immunity and the president continues to harbor serious concerns this legislation would make the US vulnerable in other court systems around the world”.
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The bill, called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), would widen sovereign immunity restrictions to allow American victims of terror attacks to sue nation-states that supported the violence.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said Monday that he’s “confident” Congress would override the president’s expected veto. The Saudi government held $117 billion in U.S. Treasury debt in March, according to Treasury figures obtained by Bloomberg. At today’s mid-day press briefing, Earnest stated, “That is still the plan”.
The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is a key member, said the legislation “contravenes the foundations and principles of relations between states, notably sovereign immunity”. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also attended.
A similar request was made, today, by the 9/11 Families of CT, with spokesman Brett Eagleson, whose father was killed at the World Trade Center, telling the press that a threatened veto was like, “a kick in the stomach to 2,996 victims of terrorism on American soil”. “Why-such-suits-could-backfire-video” class=”local_link” target=”_blank”>passed by the Senate in May and the House on Friday, was originally conceived amid speculation that some Saudi officials had connections to attackers who had a hand in the attacks of 2001, which took the lives of nearly 3,000.
President Barack Obama walks onstage to deliver remarks at the Sept. 11 memorial observance ceremony at the Pentagon, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016.
“The families of the 9/11 victims have suffered so much and fought so hard for justice”.
The bill was introduced in the House and is making its way through Congress. The White House has said that Obama would veto the bill. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sailed through Congress with strong bipartisan support.
The legislation could also further strain relations between Washington and oil-rich Saudi Arabia, which is wary of the Obama administration’s outreach to its regional rival, Iran.
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His remarks in the Oval Office, with the congressional leaders present, represented a marked shift in tone from a preview of the meeting provided by his spokesman just hours earlier.
