American Victims of Terrorism Compensation Act Is Introduced To Congress

Follow H.R.8419: To amend the Justice for United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act to provide funding for United States victims of state-sponsored terrorism by ensuring consistent and meaningful distributions from the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, and for other purposes.

Short Summary:

I.        Background

The American Victims of Terrorism Compensation Act, led by U.S. Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Daniel Goldman (D- NY) and Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), is a desperately needed law to help American victims of state-sponsored terrorism.  Congress enacted the Justice for United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism (“USVSST”) Act in 2015 to provide American victims who obtained court judgments against State Sponsors of Terrorism, such as Iran, with a way to recover, given the terrorist state defendants’ refusal to pay. The USVSST Fund has made only four distributions over eight years, with distributions becoming drastically smaller over time. The Special Master announced in July 2023 that there will be no distribution for 2024, and future distributions are uncertain. This bill simply provides needed funds for the USVSST Fund – i.e., a “fund the fund” bill – that helps ensure some justice for U.S. victims of state sponsored terrorism, as Congress intended, without using taxpayer dollars.

II.      Summary of the American Victims of Terrorism Compensation Act

• • The USVSST Fund depends almost exclusively on fines and penalties collected by DOJ from cases involving state sponsors of terrorism.  Because this is the only specific type of case that supports these victims, the bill ensures that qualifying fines and penalties from those cases go into the USVSST Fund.

• • Due to DOJ’s (1) decreased enforcement actions and (2) narrow interpretation of the existing statute, the USVSST Fund has left victims without meaningful distributions for many years.  This bill would establish another source of funds to address this shortfall for victims, taking only a portion of the excess of DOJ’s Asset Forfeiture Fund (“AFF”) and Treasury’s Forfeiture Fund (“TFF”) after all authorized expenses in a given fiscal year have already been paid, and new expenses for the subsequent year accounted for.

• • Because there has been no meaningful distribution to victims in several years, and no distribution at all in many years since Congress created the Fund, the bill provides for an immediate distribution in 2024 – including from forfeitures paid by Binance pursuant to a plea agreement in a case involving state sponsors of terrorism – and annual distributions each year to be authorized on January 1.

• • The bill promotes needed transparency by requiring additional reports from the Special Master and GAO to facilitate Congressional oversight and safeguard against fraud, waste, and abuse of funds.

• • The bill benefits all U.S. victims of state sponsored terrorism in the Fund fairly and equitably, and does not prioritize or play favorites with any particular group.
  • The bill provides a sustainable mechanism to help new victims as they suffer tragedy from the acts of terrorists, and seek and receive judgments against state sponsors of terrorism, as Congress intended.

• • Those victims who will benefit include, among many others, victims of the: