An effort to help victims and families of the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing could derail legislation in the lame-duck session to compensate certain families for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer has been seeking bipartisan support to clear a House-passed bill that would provide nearly $3 billion in “catch-up payments” to 9/11 family members who were denied earlier rounds of compensation. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., is sponsoring the companion Senate bill.
But that effort grew more complicated after Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced his own bill this week seeking to expand the measure to compensate an estimated 1,500 victims and relatives for a 1983 attack by Hezbollah on a Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon that killed 241 U.S. military personnel, who were mostly Marines.
