US President Barack Obama will veto the bill passed by the Republican-majority House of Representatives that, if passed, would allow victims of the 9/11 attacks and their relatives to sue foreign governments suspected of backing terrorism against America, the White House has said.
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“The president feels quite strongly about this”, Earnest said of the legislation, which Obama has said could dangerously undermine the United States’ interests globally, opening the country to a raft of lawsuits by private citizens overseas. The administration has long argued that this would set a risky global precedent, inviting citizens of other countries to sue American service members and US government officials in their own countries’ courts.
United States passes a law allowing families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia.
Lawmakers were expected to attempt to override the veto, and if successful, would mark the first time in Obama’s presidency, CNN noted.
Friday’s vote comes just ahead of the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The House passed the bill in a unanimous vote Thursday, following the Senate’s unanimous vote of approval earlier this year in a rare display of bipartisanship in both chambers. The White House has said that Mr Obama would veto the bill.
But some members of Congress have become increasingly restive about relations with Saudi Arabia, long an important player in U.S. Middle East policy. The measure, S. 2040, was co-sponsored in the Senate by the No. 2 Democrat, Chuck Schumer of NY, and the No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas. Obama and other political leaders on Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of the attacks that brought down the World Trade Center towers and damaged the Pentagon.
He said the legislation is contrary to how the US has conducted business on the worldwide stage for decades.
Earnest also said the White House was also concerned that the bill would open up the U.S. to be sued by individuals overseas. The most immediate effect of the bill would be to allow lawsuits against Saudi Arabia, which – according to recently declassified pages from a 9/11 commission report – had several connections to the 9/11 hijackers. “I urge the president to sign this bill into law”.
But in Congress, the bill has strong support. It takes a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate to override a veto. The Senate has been aiming to leave Washington as soon as this week, before that deadline, and the House next week, and lawmakers would not be in Washington again until after the November 8 elections.
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“Today’s vote sends an unmistakable message that…the families of those lost in attacks like that on September 11th should have every means at their disposal to seek justice”, Cornyn said in a statement. They just got back from an uninterrupted seven-week vacation.
