WASHINGTON -U.S. lawmakers
expressed doubts on Thursday about Sept. 11 legislation they forced on
President Barack Obama, saying the new law allowing lawsuits against Saudi
Arabia could be narrowed to ease concerns about its effect on Americans abroad.

A day after a rare overwhelming
rejection of a presidential veto, the first during Obama’s eight years in the
White House, the Republican leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives opened
the door to fixing the law as they blamed the Democratic president for not
consulting them adequately.

“I do think it is worth
further discussing,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told
reporters, acknowledging that there could be “potential consequences”
of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, known as JASTA.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said
Congress might have to “fix” the legislation to protect U.S. troops
in particular.

Ryan did not give a time frame,
but Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, said he thought JASTA could be addressed in Congress’
“lame-duck” session after the Nov. 8 election.

The law grants an exception to
the legal principle of sovereign immunity in cases of terrorism on U.S. soil,
clearing the way for lawsuits seeking damages from the Saudi government. Riyadh
denies longstanding suspicions that it backed the hijackers who attacked the
United States in 2001.

Sept. 11 families lobbied
intensely for the bill, getting it passed by the House days before the 15th
anniversary of the 2001 attacks earlier this month after years of effort.

“We have to understand the
political environment we’re in right now and the tremendous support the 9/11
victims have in the United States,” said Robert Jordan, a former U.S.
ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh is one of Washington’s
longest-standing and most important allies in the Middle East and part of a
U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.