9/11 compensation bill tangled up in Beirut victims’ push
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.
Cotton’s bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, would rescind $3 billion in unspent pandemic aid allocated for an emergency rental assistance program to pay for the expansion. Compensating the Beirut families would cost about $1.1 billion, and the remainder of the money would go into the underlying U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund.
—CQ-Roll Call
Will Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes cooperate to avoid long prison sentence?
Oath Keepers founder and North Texas resident Stewart Rhodes has big decisions to make now that he’s been convicted of sedition and a potentially lengthy prison sentence could mean he dies in prison because of his age.
Rhodes, 57, of Granbury, faces up to 20 years in federal prison for leading a violent plot with members of his extremist militia to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential win over Donald Trump.
A Washington, D.C., jury convicted Rhodes and a top deputy on Tuesday of the rarely used Civil War-era charge of seditious conspiracy and other charges after a nearly two-month trial. The five-defendant trial, the biggest to date in the government’s massive investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, focused on the far-right extremist group’s efforts to keep Trump in the White House, even by using deadly force.
Rhodes testified in his own defense during the trial. If the judge decides Rhodes lied on the witness stand, he faces punishment enhancements that could add up to a long prison sentence, unless he’s willing to help prosecutors with other cases. His conviction also has important implications for some of his top associates, including two other North Texas residents awaiting trial on related charges in Washington, D.C.
—The Dallas Morning News
Penn Law will not submit data for US News rankings
PHILADELPHIA — Just as Harvard and Yale law schools announced last month, the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School said Friday it will not submit data to U.S. News and World Report for its rankings.
“The current U.S. News ranking methodology is unnecessarily secretive and contrary to important parts of our mission, including Penn Carey Law’s increasing investment in need-based financial aid and public interest lawyering,” the school said in a statement.
“We have directly and frankly shared these concerns with U.S. News and hope they will consider significant and meaningful changes in how data is calculated and published.” The law school also said “in the interest of greater transparency,” it would make its data public.
Penn had said last month that it intended to evaluate the issue. Friday’s announcement comes “after careful consideration,” the school said. In withdrawing from the rankings, Harvard and Yale cited methodology that makes it more difficult for the schools to admit low-income students.
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
EU agrees to set $60 price cap level for Russian oil exports
The European Union agreed to put a price cap on Russian oil at $60 a barrel, paving the way for a wider Group of Seven deal.
The price is higher than where Russia already sells most of its crude. That’s because one of the main aims of the measure is to try to keep Russian oil flowing to global markets. But it’s less generous than an earlier proposal after pressure from Poland and the Baltic countries.
After long negotiations, those countries succeeded in securing additional conditions aimed at punishing Moscow, including a mechanism that would allow for revisions of the price every two months, There’s also a provision to make sure any resetting of the cap should leave it at least 5% below average market rates.
“We are truly reducing the Russian war machine potential by cutting budget revenues from oil sales,” Andrzej Sados, Poland’s ambassador to the E.U., told Bloomberg News. “This is a good solution for Ukraine and for Europe.”
—Bloomberg News
