I continue to support Congress's efforts to ensure that victims of terrorism and their families are compensated by the foreign states that have committed such atrocious crimes.
Monetary damages can never truly compensate the victims and their families.
What Congress can do is ensure that judicial judgements against these terrorist nations are enforced so that monetary awards actually hurt these terrorist states rather than being merely a slap on the wrist. In considering H.R. 3485, I raised two concerns with provisions under current law that potentially restrict victims ability to obtain compensation for terrorist attacks against them or their family members. Both of these concerns were incorporated in an amendment I offered that was accepted by the Majority. In particular, I was concerned that road blocks put up by foreign states in the course of discovery can severely burden the litigation process to the victims' detriment. Moreover, it is important to ensure that the continuing efforts of Congress and numerous States to implement Federal and State statutory caps on damage awards do not apply to U.S. victims of terrorist attacks.