“We believe this is a bad bill”, Josh Earnest, White House spokesman said. “It’s why the president’s going to veto it”.
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President Obama has until midnight Friday to make good on his threat to veto a bill giving the families of 9/11 victims a chance to sue Saudi Arabia over alleged ties to the terrorist who carried out the attacks. Consequently, Republican nominee Donald Trump painted Obama and his would-be successor Hillary Clinton as weak on terrorism. It would be the first time during Obama’s presidency that Congress has overridden a veto.
The Obama administration fears that if the bill is signed, it could be a model for other countries that wish to sue Saudi Arabia.
The bill passed Thursday by a 254-163 vote. “And then the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives should then take up a veto override vote, and I’m confident of what the outcome of that would be”. “They are 100% wrong”, said Terry Strada, whose husband Tom Strada died in World Trade Center collapse.
But Republicans will need the backing of Democratic lawmakers, who the White House is lobbying furiously.
The Republican leaders of the Senate and House have both said in recent says that an override is expected to go through, despite new qualms about the bill.
Despite other concerns of national security experts and the European Union’s delegation to the United States, congressional leaders strongly believe that overriding Obama’s veto would be successful, said the Post.
“I hope that it can be put off, and cooler heads will prevail”, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s ranking Democrat, Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), said this week, calling efforts to move ahead with the bill in its current form “a mistake”.
“The bill is not balanced, sets a unsafe precedent, and has real potential to destabilize vital bilateral relationships and the global economy”, GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who backs the legislation. “But at the same time, I have concerns about the precedent it would set”.
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The letter also noted the law, if enacted, “will most certainly undermine our relationship with one of our most important allies, Saudi Arabia, and damage our relationship with the entire Middle East”.
