The Senate was expected to pass the defense authorization bill as early as last night, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who called the legislation a priority as the chamber returned from its year-end recess yesterday.
“Passing the defense authorization bill–again–is also a top priority for this work period,” he said in a floor statement yesterday. The bill was delivered to the president before Congress left for its holiday recess. But on Dec. 28, the president unexpectedly said he intended to veto the measure because of a provision that allowed terrorism victims to sue Iraq and other state sponsors of terrorism and would freeze assets of that country during the lawsuit.
The House returned from its recess last week and passed the bill, changing it to allow the president to waive the application of that section of the bill to victims of terrorism in Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s regime (s, Jan. 17).
The Senate would approve that version of the legislation.