Lawmakers who unanimously backed a bill that would allow terrorism lawsuits against foreign governments that aren’t officially considered sponsors of terror are starting to rethink their support, in response to fierce White House opposition to the legislation.
President Obama is expected to veto the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) this week. In response, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has promised votes next week to override the presidential veto.
JASTA was passed by unanimous consent in both chambers, though some lawmakers are now beginning to waiver, according to a report in Politico.
“I do have some second thoughts with respect to that,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said on Tuesday about the prospect of a veto-override vote. “I think it could bring on a whole host of unintended consequences.”
Feinstein and other lawmakers, however, did not attempt to stop the measure as it sailed through Congress this year. The bill was lobbied for by families of 9/11 victims who want to bring suit against the government of Saudi Arabia. A recently declassified portion of the Congressional 9/11 inquiry reveals several threads of information that could indicate Saudi officials were involved in the planning and financing of the terror attacks.
The White House has argued that allowing US citizens to sue foreign governments found culpable in terror, as JASTA does, could open the door for foreign countries to pass similar laws that leave the US government vulnerable to lawsuits abroad—erasing the principle of sovereign immunity.
“I understand the importance of sovereign immunity as it relates to international activities,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) this week. “So I’d like to understand the president’s concerns, whether there are alternative ways to handle this before I make a judgment.”
Even Republicans seems open to reconsidering their prior support for JASTA. “I’m willing to hear concerns,” said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday.
The legislation was drafted by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, expressed frustration over his colleagues’ waffling.
“It should be 100-0, but I don’t expect that it will be,” Grassley said referring to a potential veto-override vote.
“If people don’t want to override the veto, they should’ve expressed their opposition earlier,” he added.
Although the President Obama is committed to defeating JASTA, the administration did secure a large loophole in the legislation that could render the law meaningless. The bill allows the Attorney General or the Secretary of State to squash any pending lawsuit against a foreign government, as long as they first certify that the US is “engaged in good-faith discussions with the foreign-state defendant concerning the resolution of claims against the foreign state.”
Should Majority Leader McConnell move forward with a veto-override vote next week, the administration will need to convince 34 Senators to change their position on the measure in order to defeat it.
