The House will vote Friday on a bill to allow families of the victims of 9/11 to sue Saudi Arabia for its alleged support of terrorism, according to information from a GOP leadership aide, reports The Washington Post.
The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act would remove foreign officials' ability to claim sovereign immunity in cases that involve terror attacks on U.S. soil. Victims' families have hoped to press lawsuits against Saudi Arabian officials who have been suspected of supporting organizations linked to terror groups.
Saudi Arabia has denied those ties and campaigned against the bill, The Post reported.
Passing the bill around the 15th anniversary of 9/11 would set up the White House to make good on its veto promise, which could provide ammunition in the upcoming election for the GOP, according to The Post.
The Obama administration has opposed the bill, fearing it could establish a precedent that could endanger American officials who work overseas and harm America's relations with Saudi Arabia.
The Senate passed the bill in May despite Saudi threats to pull funding from the U.S. if the bill is passed.
At that time, victims' families and lawmakers were calling for the release of 28 classified pages from a congressional 9/11 inquiry. Those pages were released in July, and added little information that was not already publicly available.
Former officials in the George W. Bush administration opposed the bill in an op-ed piece for The Wall Street Journal. Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton and former Attorney General William Mukasey wrote, "Counterterrorism policy in the past eight years has been a failure, but this bill won't fix it."
The op-ed piece noted that laws exist already that allow U.S. citizens to sue foreign countries that have been designated as sponsors of terrorism, but this bill removes that requirement.
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