However, Obama has warned that by allowing families of 9/11 victims to take that country’s government to court, the bill would open up the possibility of other countries doing the same to Washington. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are led by the opposition Republican Party, and its leaders have indicated they are confident they have enough votes to overturn Obama’s veto.
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“These are wonderful people, and as a lifelong New Yorker, I am saddened that they will, for now, not have that opportunity”.
President Obama on Friday afternoon vetoed a 9/11 bill supported by victims’ families and members of both political parties, opening himself up to questions about his political motivations.
Mr Obama’s move escalates the fight over an emotional issue that has overlapped with the campaign debate over terrorism and the Middle East. After the JASTA was passed by Congress, just two days before the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council expressed “profound worry” over the bill.
The bill, named Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), would remove the sovereign immunity in US courts from Saudi government, which is not designated state sponsor of terrorism by the United States.
The bill had sailed through both chambers of Congress with bi-partisan support, clearing the final hurdle just days before the 15th anniversary of the September 11 2001 attacks that killed almost 3,000 people. JASTA, he wrote, “would be detrimental to USA interests”.
President Obama made good on his threat to veto a bill allowing lawsuits against foreign sponsors of terrorism Friday, setting up what could be the most contentious veto override vote of his presidency. It would be the first of Obama’s 12 vetoes to be overturned. Yet the Senate would be the greater challenge. Congress could override the president’s action, and many Washington observers feel that such a rebuff to Obama is likely.
“There will be a roll call vote on the veto override”, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday.
New York Senator Chuck Schumer – a Democrat with close ties to Obama and who cosponsored the bill – insisted that is about to change.
“The families of the victims of 9/11 deserve their day in court, and justice for those families shouldn’t be thrown overboard because of diplomatic concerns”, he said.
“I recognize that there is nothing that could ever erase the grief that 9/11 families have endured”, he wrote in his veto message.
Second, the bill would upset longstanding worldwide principles regarding sovereign immunity, putting in place rules that, if applied globally, could have serious implications for US national interests as the USA has larger global presence than any other country.
But opponents say it is a slippery slope, considering that the U.S. is frequently accused wrongly by its foes of supporting terrorism.
“Americans are in countries all over the world”, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, a Republican, wrote Friday in a letter urging colleagues to support a veto. “Many of those countries do not respect the rule of law, and we can not expect their responses to be as measured and narrow as ours”. Fifteen of the 19 terrorists were Saudi and that nation’s leaders have previously opposed the legislation and denied involvement. Saudi Arabia, a key USA ally, strongly objected to the bill.
“Obama also said the move would open Americans overseas, especially those serving in the military, to prosecutions by foreign countries, since this would remove the reciprocal agreements that now protect both sides from such lawsuits”.
The number of lawmakers who plan to vote against the veto and reinstate Saudi Arabia’s exposure to legal action is hard to tally, according to the White House deputy press secretary, Josh Earnest, because of “the frequency with which we hear private concerns expressed that don’t match the public votes that are cast [later]”. The U.S. relies on the Saudis as a counter to Iran’s influence in the region as well as to help combat the spread of terrorism throughout the Middle East.
Since the bill’s passage, the White House has lobbied aggressively to persuade lawmakers to withdraw support, and found some sympathetic listeners.
The Senate and House approved the bill with voice votes – meaning unanimously – so any lawmaker who votes to sustain the veto could be accused of flip-flopping. Hillary Clinton supports the bill.
Following the veto, Republican presidential contender Donald Trump said in a statement the move “is shameful and will go down as one of the low points of his presidency”.
A senior Saudi prince reportedly threatened to pull billions of dollars out of United States assets if it becomes law, but Saudi officials now distance themselves from that claim. The White House claims the bill could do serious damage to U.S. -Saudi relations and encourage lawsuits against the U.S. from around the world.
The House vote on September 9 came two months after Congress released 28 declassified pages from a congressional report into 9/11.
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Declassified documents showed USA intelligence had multiple suspicions about links between the Saudi government and the attackers.
