Lawmakers expressed doubts on Thursday about Sept. 11 legislation they forced on US President Barack Obama, saying the new law allowing lawsuits against Saudi Arabia could be narrowed to ease concerns about its effect on Americans overseas.
A day after a rare overwhelming rejection of a presidential veto, the first during Obama’s eight years in the White House, the Republican leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives opened the door to fixing the law as they blamed the Democratic president for not consulting them adequately.
“I do think it is worth further discussing,” US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters, acknowledging that there could be “potential consequences” of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA).
US House Speaker Paul Ryan said Congress might have to “fix” the legislation to protect US troops in particular.
Ryan did not give a time frame, but Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he thought JASTA could be addressed in Congress’ “lame-duck” session after the Nov. 8 election.
The law grants an exception to the legal principle of sovereign immunity in cases of terrorism on US soil, clearing the way for lawsuits seeking damages from the Saudi Arabian government. Riyadh denies longstanding suspicions that it backed the hijackers who attacked the US in 2001.
Sept. 11 families lobbied intensely for the bill, getting it passed by the House days before the 15th anniversary of the 2001 attacks earlier this month after years of effort.
“We have to understand the political environment we’re in right now and the tremendous support the 9/11 victims have in the United States,” said Robert Jordan, a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh is one of Washington’s longest-standing allies in the Middle East.
The Saudi Arabians lobbied furiously against JASTA and the Saudi Arabian foreign ministry condemned its passage in a statement on Thursday.
“The erosion of sovereign immunity will have a negative impact on all nations, including the United States,” said the statement, which was carried on state news agency SPA.
Still, the new law is not expected to have a lasting effect on the two nations’ strategic relationship.
Saudi Arabian-US ties have endured “multiple times of deep outrage” over the past 70 years, Thomas Lippman of the Middle East Institute said.
“The two countries need each other as much today as they did before the day before yesterday,” he said.
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