John McCain’s statement adds to the air of inevitability on Capitol Hill surrounding the 9/11 bill. | Getty McCain will vote to override veto of 9/11 bill

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain will vote to override President Barack Obama’s veto of legislation that would allow families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia — defying warnings from military officials that it could put U.S. troops at risk.

McCain’s decision to back the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act is also a notable break from his usual hawkish allies on the Capitol. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry of Texas has circulated a letter urging Republicans to sustain Obama’s veto, while close friend Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has also voiced concerns and worked behind the scenes on potential tweaks to the bill — but with little success.


“I plan to vote to override the president’s veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act,” McCain said in a statement to POLITICO. “Going forward, I will continue to work with my colleagues in the Senate to ensure that American military, intelligence, and diplomatic personnel are protected from any potential retaliatory lawsuits and that the implementation of this law is true to its narrow intent.”

Earlier Tuesday, McCain had declined to say where he could come down on the JASTA vote scheduled in the Senate for Wednesday, noting: “I have got to look at what the alternatives are.”

McCain’s statement adds to the air of inevitability on Capitol Hill surrounding the 9/11 bill, which was formally vetoed by Obama last week but is expected to easily clinch the two-thirds support from Congress needed to override a presidential veto. It would be Obama’s first veto successfully overridden by Congress.

Still, top Obama administration officials have tried to exert last-minute pressure on lawmakers to help sustain Obama’s veto. For instance, Secretary of State John Kerry has had several conversations with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who has been one of the senators most skeptical of the bill.

Gen. Joe Dunford, the top U.S. military official, weighed in Tuesday with a letter, obtained by POLITICO, outlining his concerns for U.S. service members and “risks to the close security cooperation relationships” with allies. And Defense Secretary Ash Carter fired off another warning to Congress, arguing that legislation has “potentially harmful consequences for the Department of Defense and its personnel.”

"While we are sympathetic to the intent of JASTA, its potential second- and third-order consequences could be devastating to the department and its service members and could undermine our important counterterrorism efforts abroad," Carter wrote in the letter, obtained by POLITICO.

On Tuesday, McCain’s Democratic counterpart on the Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, acknowledged the administration's concerns.

“I’m looking closely at two significant issues,” Reed said. “One is that the families are looking not for any type of award, they’re looking for accountability as much as anything else. On the other side, is the real possibility this will be used against us and our troops and servicemen, and I’m trying to balance that.”

McCain’s Democratic opponent, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, also plans to vote to override Obama’s veto, she said in a statement earlier this month. Kirkpatrick’s campaign has also raised Saudi Arabia as a campaign issue. As the Senate debated a vote to block a Saudi arms sale last week, her campaign accused McCain of having ties to the Saudi government through a donation to the McCain Institute.

Even lawmakers who have voiced concerns say there is little question the Senate is set to easily override Obama’s veto. Corker and Graham had started to discuss a potential change to the legislation that would narrow its scope to just the families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to congressional sources. Right now, JASTA applies to any foreign government found liable for terrorism conducted on U.S. soil – although the main target of the legislation has largely been viewed as Saudi Arabia and its alleged role in the terror attacks 15 years ago. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals.

Speaking with reporters, Corker said limiting JASTA to just Sept. 11 victims was the “easiest” way to narrow the legislation, but it was still facing opposition from JASTA supporters. He predicted that lawmakers may push to pass a legislative fix to the 9/11 bill in the lame-duck session, after observing any potential “blowback” the United States ends up facing from foreign governments over the next several weeks.

“This isn’t to me about Saudi Arabia,” Corker said. “It’s the blowback to us because we’re the most involved in the world. You end up exporting your foreign policy to trial lawyers, right? … What you’re really doing here is potentially exporting big issues to trial lawyers away from our own abilities as a government to conduct foreign policy. That’s an issue.”

Though the veto override appears like a done deal, there was a clear and palpable sense of buyer’s remorse percolating among key lawmakers as the Senate barreled toward the key vote on Wednesday.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, noted that he himself was a co-sponsor of JASTA. Still, that wasn’t stopping him from having second thoughts as the prospect of the legislation turning into law became a reality.

“I’m worried about getting into a tremendous legal morass that can really cost this country, not just locally but by other countries across the world,” Hatch said. “I have to say, I don’t think we had enough time to consider all the ramifications. There are a lot of ramifications.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, also reiterated her concerns: “The more I think from an intelligence perspective, it’s the wrong thing to do.”

Still, other senators appeared to have little change of heart ahead of the high-profile vote on Wednesday.

“The vote passed overwhelmingly here in the Senate and the House,” said Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.). “I supported it at the time. I haven’t seen anything that would change my mind.”