On the recordSeptember 28, 2016
I thank Chairman Goodlatte for yielding. Foreign threats should never dictate American policy, but that is, unfortunately, what happened with President Obama's veto of this legislation. That a foreign government can hide behind sovereign immunity after slaughtering Americans in our own homeland is an outrage, so it is no wonder that this bill was passed by Congress unanimously. Terror victims can already sue individuals for complicity in an attack. A foreign government shouldn't be immune from justice simply because it is a government. For those of my colleagues who may be reluctant about voting for an override of this veto, I think Chairman Goodlatte's explanation of the bill should give them peace. There are already nine exemptions to the sovereign immunity law, and JASTA will not create a tenth. It modifies one of those nine. JASTA is about 9/11 victims who have waited more than 15 years to have their day in court. It is about the families of over 300 people killed that day who lived in my congressional district. It is about my friend, Lori Mascali, whose husband, firefighter Joseph Mascali, died that day saving other people's lives. I urge my colleagues to put American victims of terror first by voting to override the President's veto.
