Chris Smith: “The Continuing Resolution before us today not only keeps our government open and operating until December 20, 2019--as…”

“The Continuing Resolution before us today not only keeps our government open and operating until December 20, 2019--as we finalize the 2020 budget--but it also extends authorities for critical services such as the National Flood Insurance Program, Community Health Centers, and the National Health Service Corps. Of particular significance to thousands of 9/11 survivors--and a giant step forward for justice--the CR also reforms the US Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism (USVSST) Fund to ensure that immediate family members--the spouses and children of the victims of 9/11--are, for the first time, given rightful access to the judgements they have won in court against the perpetrators of the attack on our Nation. The USVSST was established by Congress in December 2015 to compensate victims of international state-sponsored terrorism. It is funded entirely by criminal and civil penalties collected by the US government from foreign entities that violate U.S. sanctions--primarily related to Iran. In addition to compensating Americans who were held hostage during the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979-1981, the 2015 legislation also sought to award any persons who have won legal judgments in a U.S. federal district court against a state sponsor of terrorism arising from acts of international terrorism. Is there any more deserving group of victims of state sponsored acts of terrorism than those who lost their parents or spouses on September 11, 2001? I don't think so.…”