Senate Bill Would Allow 9/11 Lawsuits Against Saudi Arabia

An informal memorial to 9/11 victims on the fence of a car-lot in New York City. Photo credit: Diliff, creative commons

Families who lost a loved one in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks could sue Saudi Arabia for damages under new legislation that passed the U.S. Senate on Tuesday. The Senate approved the bill unanimously by voice vote.

The House is planning to take up the bill next, though a vote hasn’t yet been scheduled, according to Reuters.

The White House has already threatened a veto, saying “the whole notion of sovereign immunity is at stake.” Although the U.S. couldn’t be sued under this particular law, the president fears it could open the door for other countries to pass similar legislation.

Bill sponsor Chuck Schumer, a powerful Democrat from New York, says he thinks Congress will have the votes to override a veto.

The alliance between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia has become strained in recent years due to disagreements over a range of issues, including human rights, the U.S. decision not to conduct air strikes against Syria, and Saudi Arabia's place as the dominant power in the region.

The bill doesn’t explicitly target Saudi Arabia, but it’s clear that Saudi Arabia is the target.

The Saudi government is threatening to sell off its U.S. assets – including $750 billion in Treasury securities – if the legislation passes, in order to avoid the risk of having their assets frozen, according to the New York Times.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, also a bill sponsor, called that “saber rattling,” and the Times reports that economists agree that a selloff like that would hurt Saudi Arabia more than the United States.

The existing Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) makes it hard to sue foreign governments and has blocked 9/11 victims' families attempted lawsuits in the past. The new bill would create an exception to FSIA for countries that fund terrorist attacks that kill American citizens on U.S. soil.

The 9/11 Commission officially cleared Saudi Arabia of blame for the attacks, but rumors persist that redacted pages of a congressional 9/11 report implicate the nation. Saudi Arabia has called for the declassification of that section so it can be cleared of wrongdoing.

President Obama is expected to release the document soon. It’s still unclear how much can be definitively learned from those 28 pages, which are reportedly filled with unverified information that the FBI came across.