Obama Vetoes 9/11 Bill; Possible Override By Congress Looms

A 9/11 bill veto by President Barack Obama before a midnight Friday deadline faces an override vote that would give US families an opportunity to sue Saudi Arabia over its alleged connections to the terrorist attacks. But the White House said the bill, which doesn’t refer specifically to Saudi Arabia, could backfire by opening up the us government and its officials to lawsuits by anyone accusing the USA of supporting terrorism, rightly or wrongly.

President Barack Obama vetoed Friday a bill that would allow family members of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. It would take a two-thirds vote of both chambers to override the veto, something that has never happened during the Obama presidency.

Congressional leaders say they have the voters to override Obama’s veto. New concerns on investor visas Overnight Energy: GOP leaves Flint out of spending bill MORE (R-Wis.) said the House will follow suit, predicting “the votes are there for the override”.

“Our assumption is that the veto will be overridden”, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday, CNN reports.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of NY, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat and a traditional Obama ally, came out swinging against Obama’s veto while predicting lawmakers would reverse it “swiftly and soundly”. That’s according to a spokesman, Jesse Lehrich.

“I worry about legal matters”, Ryan said.

But he went on to argue that the bill, known as the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act or JASTA, was misguided.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, but no link to the government has been proven. The bill at hand would have allowed lawsuits if a foreign government were found to have played a role in a terrorist attack.

“Saudi Arabia has always been considered the primary source of al Qaeda funding, but we have found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization”, the commission’s report reads.

Obama long had objected, too, warning that if USA citizens are allowed to take the Saudis into court, then foreign countries could do the same to the United States, its diplomats and its service members.

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”. That deadline expires at midnight Friday, and the White House has been stalling for time in hopes of changing minds on Capitol Hill.

Still, members of both parties called for Congress to delay its planned override vote so that lawmakers could try to renegotiate the bill with the White House. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan also said he believed there were enough votes to overturn the veto, but Ryan also expressed his ambivalence toward JASTA.

Earnest did not say when, but the president has until Friday to act on the bill. But the measure, he said, would be “detrimental to USA national interests” and would “neither protect Americans from terrorist attacks nor improve the effectiveness of our response to such attacks”.

An organization representing numerous 9/11 families said Friday that it was “outraged and dismayed” by the veto, calling Obama’s reasons “unconvincing” and “unsupportable”.

On Thursday, lawmakers grilled members of the administration over what the repercussions would be if the bill becomes law.