WTF - After Overriding Obama's Veto, Congress Is Now Having Second Thoughts About the 9/11 Bill

Republican congressional leaders said Thursday they might need to revisit a measure that allows victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to sue Saudi Arabia over worries that it will expose U.S. officials to lawsuits abroad.

It was just this week that Congress overwhelmingly voted to override President Obama’s veto of the measure, which is now law. But some lawmakers already seemed to be backtracking from their embrace of the measure shortly before leaving town until after the November elections.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday the law could have “unintended ramifications” and needed “further discussion.” But he blamed the White House for not making a forceful argument about the threat posed by the legislation to to U.S. officials.

“Everybody was aware of who the potential beneficiaries were, but nobody had really focused on the potential downsides in terms of our international relationships,” said McConnell, who voted to override the president’s veto.

Their comments infuriated White House officials who contend the dangers posed by the bill were obvious and articulated well ahead of the votes to pass the bill and then to override the veto.

“The suggestion on the part of some members of the Senate was that they didn’t know what they were voting on, that they didn’t understand the negative consequences of the bill,” he said Thursday. “That’s a hard suggestion to take seriously.”

The White House has warned the legislation is too broad and could set a dangerous precedent, inviting other nations to respond by suing American diplomats, military personnel and other officials in foreign courts over U.S. foreign policy actions.

While the bill is intended to aid 9/11 victims’ families pursuit of Saudi Arabia through the court system, it is broader than that and would allow courts to waive claims to foreign sovereign immunity in situations involving acts of terrorism on U.S. soil.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/09/29/republican-leaders-say-911-measure-may-need-to-be-revisited-after-elections/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_1_na