White House press secretary Josh Earnest emphasized Monday that Barack Obama still plans to veto the bill. | Getty Bill allowing 9/11 suits against Saudis sent to Obama

The White House on Monday received legislation passed unanimously by Congress that would allow families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to sue Saudi Arabia— triggering a 10-day timeline for President Barack Obama to either sign or veto the measure.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest emphasized Monday that Obama still plans to veto the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which unanimously passed the House last Friday on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the attacks and is likely to result in the first veto override of his presidency.


Obama has 10 days to act on the measure starting Tuesday, congressional aides said. Sundays don’t count in the 10-day timeframe, so that means Obama must act by Sept. 23 after receiving the legislation Monday night.

“If nobody objected to the bill [passage], I don’t know why they would change their vote on a veto override,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of the chief backers of the legislation, said Monday. “This would be the first one under this president, and I think it would be well deserved."

The Obama administration has listed several concerns with the legislation. For one, the legislation could potentially lead to different judges in different courtrooms coming up with differing terror designations about the same country, Earnest said — in contrast to the current process within the administration deeming certain nations state sponsors of terrorism.

The White House is also worried that the legislation could open up the U.S. government to legal retaliation by foreign governments — a concern it underscored again on Monday.

“The president feels quite strongly about this,” Earnest said Monday. “Our concern is not limited to the impact it could have on a relationship with one country, but rather it could have an impact on our relationship with every country around the world in a way that has negative consequences for the United States, for our national security, and for our men and women in uniform.”

Depending on when Obama sends a veto message back to the Capitol, lawmakers could vote to override it as quickly as this month, although the exact timing is unclear and the expectation among some had been that a veto-override vote would likely come in the lame-duck session. The timing also depends on how quickly lawmakers in both chambers move an interim spending measure through Dec. 9 that has to pass by the end of this month.

“I presume we would not leave until we have a chance to vote on a veto override following” passage of the short-term spending measure, Cornyn told reporters Monday. “We just don’t know what the timing’s going to be. We don’t know how quickly the House is going to move on the [continuing resolution] and we don’t know what sort of things might happen in between.”

And with such forceful backing on Capitol Hill, key lawmakers were urging Obama to reconsider his opposition to the measure.

"The families of the 9/11 victims have suffered so much and fought so hard for justice,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who led efforts in the Senate on behalf of the measure, said in a statement Monday. “I hope for their sake that the administration will rethink vetoing this bill.”

