YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyTransparency & AccountabilityBeirut and Khobar Towers bombing victims who missed a payout after wrong guidance could claim it.
Your Money
People already found eligible for regular payments were told they could not also take the one-time catch-up payment. Those who skipped applying for that reason could now claim it.
Transparency & Accountability
The official who runs the fund would have to publish how to apply within 30 days. People could prove they relied on the old guidance with documents, a record of a call, or a sworn statement.
More about this bill
People hurt in the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing could claim a payment they missed. Many never applied for it. Justice Department guidance had told them they did not qualify. They would get a fresh chance at the money. The official who runs the victims fund would have to approve these late payments. Rules for claiming would come out within 30 days. To show they relied on the old guidance, people could send letters, notes of phone calls, or a sworn statement. The money would come from a reserve set aside for these payments, or from the fund itself.
Congressional Summary
Fairness for Khobar Act of 2025This bill authorizes lump sum catch-up payments from the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism (USVSST) Fund to certain victims of the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing or the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing who did not apply for catch-up payments during the application period. The USVSST Fund is administered by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and provides compensation to certain U.S. persons injured in acts of international state sponsored terrorism and their immediate family members.The Fairness for 9/11 Families Act, enacted in 2022, authorized and provided funding for lump sum catch-up payments from the USVSST Fund to victims of the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing or the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing. Claimants who were previously found eligible for regular payment distributions from the USVSST Fund were also eligible for lump sum payments, but the act required them to apply from December 29, 2022, to June 27, 2023. In a 2024 report, the Government Accountability Office found that up to 274 eligible victims did not apply for lump sum catch-up payments because of DOJ guidance that stated, in part, that claimants who were previously found eligible for regular payment distributions are not eligible for the lump sum catch-up payments.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2025-08-01
- Date Added
- 2026-08-26
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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