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White House spokesman Josh Earnest, speaking during a press
briefing in New York, repeated a promise that President Barack
Obama would veto the bill, which has been passed by both houses
of Congress, but said there was a push to change legislators'
minds about the law.
"White House officials and other senior officials on the
president's national security team have engaged members of
Congress and their staffs in both parties in both houses,"
Earnest said.
Congressional aides have said the measure appeared to have
enough support, two-thirds majorities in both the Senate and the
House of Representatives, for lawmakers to override an Obama
veto for the first time since he took office in January 2009.
The Senate sent the bill to Obama last week, giving him a 10-day
window, which ends on Sept. 23, to veto the measure.
"We're going to continue that engagement up to and through the
president vetoing this legislation in the hopes that we can find
an alternative that preserves the effective response that we've
already designed to counter state sponsors of terrorism rather
than leaving that designation subject to individual decisions by
individual judges," Earnest said.
The bill could lead to U.S. diplomats, service members and
companies being taken to court all over the world because it
would erode the principle of sovereign immunity, he said.
(Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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