President Barack Obama has vetoed a bill that would have allowed the families of 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia.
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Republican nominee Donald Trump said the veto “will go down as one of the low points of his presidency”, and that he would sign the bill as president.
The bill would revise immunity laws now sheltering Saudis from American lawsuits in US courts, and passed both the House and Senate without a single vote of opposition.
The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) bill, passed by both the chambers of the Republican controlled Congress, would have jeopardised the long standing worldwide principles regarding sovereignty and would have made adverse impact with United States interests and nationals overseas, Obama said.
Obama argues that the measure would overturn long-standing principles of worldwide law that shield governments from lawsuits, potentially opening the United States to a raft of litigation in foreign countries. The proposed law, which allows families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue governments for an alleged role, would be “detrimental to U.S. national interests”, he said in a veto message to the Senate.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers behind the 9/11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia.
On Friday, President Obama vetoed a bill that would have allowed the families of 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia for any alleged role the Gulf State played in the attacks – a move that will likely trigger the first veto override of his presidency.
Demonstrating the hard political position the White House is in, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Obama’s former secretary of state, expressed her support for the legislation Friday. “She would sign this legislation if it came to her desk”, Clinton spokesman Jesse Lehrich said in a statement. After furious lobbying to try to peel off supporters, the White House said on Friday it was unclear whether enough had defected to avert an override.
Never before has Congress managed to overturn one of Obama’s vetoes, but proponents have said they’re confident they have the backing needed.
Obama cited the potential for the popular bipartisan bill to backfire against the US, its diplomats and military personnel. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, have said they expect the override vote to be successful, which requires a two-thirds majority. In his statement on Friday, Senator Schumer said he is convinced the veto will be “swiftly and soundly overturned”. “Even more disappointing is the president’s refusal to listen to the families of the victims taken from us on September 11, who should have the chance to hold those behind the deadliest terrorist attack in American history accountable”. It would amend the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to make clear that USA citizens can sue foreign governments for acts of terrorism, even if only a portion of the plot occurred in the United States. The White House has until midnight Friday to officially submit the veto to Congress.
“Members think that families should have their day in court”, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, said Thursday, although she said some of the concerns raised by the White House are legitimate.
Saudi Arabia has said that the bill would force it to sell up to $750 billion in US assets before they could be in danger of being frozen by USA courts. Assuming that all 100 members of the Senate and all 435 members of the House are present for the vote, the override measure would need 67 votes in the Senate and 218 votes in the House.
The president delayed vetoing the bill until the last possible moment, while his staff last week asked members of Congress to back off an override.
The bill would carve out an exception to sovereign immunity – the legal doctrine that protects foreign governments from lawsuits – if a plaintiff claims to have suffered injury in the USA from state-sponsored terrorism.
With lawmakers eager to return home to campaign, a vote could come early next week.
The Obama administration has argued to Congress that the legislation would set an global precedent that risks exposing the USA government and American soldiers to lawsuits or other legal action by foreign governments.
Yet the bill’s proponents disputed arguments of a boomerang effect if the measure were to become law.
The country denies any involvement in the 2001 attacks which killed almost 3,000 people.
The bill, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, had triggered a threat from Saudi Arabia to pull billions of dollars from the USA economy if it was enacted.
Declassified documents showed USA intelligence had multiple suspicions about links between the Saudi government and the attackers.
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“That’s what’s driving the President’s decision to veto this bill – not because it’s politically convenient, it’s not”.
