Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1225 corrects a drafting error in the foreign sovereign immunity provisions of last year's antiterrorism bill. We enacted these provisions to allow victims of state-sponsored terrorism, like the Pan American 103 tragedy, to sue the countries who sponsored the terrorist act in American courts. Our intent was that families should have the benefit of these provisions so long as either the victim or the survivor was an American citizen. Unfortunately, and due to an inadvertent error, the current language can be read to allow the benefit only to those families in which both the victim and the survivor are American citizens. H.R. 1225 corrects this error and restores the law to our original intent, that the affected person should get all of the benefits of section 221 of last year's antiterrorism bill, including the statute of limitations. I understand this problem affects several of the Pan American 103 families, including Mr. Bruce Smith, who has been one of the leaders of those families.”