COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, VETERANS AFFAIRS, TRANSPORTATION, AND HOUSING AND URBAN...
Christopher H. Smith (Republican, NJ) \u2014 2019-11-19

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. prgtoken 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. prgtoken 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. prgtoken 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. prgtoken Yet, remarkably through a misinterpretation of the 2015 law by the fund's Special Master, the immediate family members--i.e. the dependents--were barred from participating--that's unfair, unjust and unconscionable. prgtoken In 2017 and 2019, the fund granted awards to the Iranian hostages, their relatives, victims of U.S. embassy bombings and the Marine barracks in Lebanon--and to more distant relatives of those who were killed on 9/11. But the spouses and children of 9/11 victims were denied, barred and shown the door. prgtoken With the deadline for the 2020 round of awards approaching, this past September I hosted a town meeting in Wall Township, New Jersey. Widely attended by spouses and children from across the entire tri-state area, the meeting exposed anew the struggles these survivors continue to face, the sacrifices they have endured, the efforts they have made to hold state sponsors of terrorism accountable for the deaths of their loved ones, and the madness in the decision to bar them from the USVSST. prgtoken The technical correction in the CR reflects a bipartisan agreement, an equitable fix to the USVSST that permits 9/11 spouses and children to pursue their judgements in the fund while continuing the participation of other victims as well. prgtoken None of this would have been possible if not for the leadership and commitment of the victim's spouses and children, people who continue to seek justice after the