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Victims of state-sponsored terrorism came to Capitol Hill this week with a simple demand: refill the U.S. Victims of State‑Sponsored Terrorism Fund and do not hand Iran a penny until American judgments are paid. The scene was sober and direct — grieving families asking the federal government to keep a solemn promise while a separate diplomatic track threatens to short‑circuit justice.
Capitol Hill push: victims demand action
Survivors and family members gathered near the Senate to press Congress to pass the American Victims of Terrorism Compensation Act (H.R.1530) or another clear funding fix. They want lawmakers to use every lawful lever to push cash, including some frozen Iranian assets, into the fund that pays court-ordered awards to victims of state-sponsored terror. Angela Mistrulli, whose father died in the World Trade Center, put it plainly: “Victims who were promised support have faced years with nothing at all… This is not theoretical. It is happening today, and it is harming families who have already suffered.” The delegation also asked President Donald Trump to insist on restitution as part of any Iran deal — a demand that ought to be noncontroversial in a country that still remembers those lost to terror.
Why the timing matters
The urgency is not drama. It’s policy. An interim Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Iran contemplates making frozen Iranian assets available during implementation. Victims fear, rightly, that those assets could be released or reallocated before American court judgments are satisfied. Meanwhile, watchdog work shows the fund’s deposits have fallen, and the fund’s special master reports the program has already paid out more than $10 billion to eligible claimants. Recent distribution rounds left less on hand, with only modest projected amounts for any next round. In short: the fund has done heavy lifting, but the pipeline funding has run low — and a diplomatic handoff to Tehran could leave victims holding an IOU from Washington.
What Congress and the White House must do
Here’s the straightforward conservative answer: Congress should pass H.R.1530 or an equivalent statutory fix to direct recoveries and qualifying assets into the victims’ fund, and the White House should make it non‑negotiable that no sanctions relief or asset transfers occur until U.S. terrorism judgments are satisfied. A bipartisan group of Members of Congress put it bluntly in a letter to the President: “No agreement, interim or long-term, should release, transfer, unfreeze, or return Iranian assets, or lift or relieve sanctions, before the outstanding terrorism judgments owed to American victims are resolved.” That’s not hard lawyering — it’s basic fairness. If Washington can hustle to free foreign cash for diplomatic reasons, it can hustle to ensure American victims get what courts ordered.
A test of priorities
If Republicans and the White House want to prove they stand for victims and for American interests, this is the test. Do we let geopolitical chess moves trump the civil judgments of our courts? Or do we make sure the injured Americans get paid before anyone else sees a dollar? Call it common decency, call it rule‑of‑law, call it politics — but don’t call it negotiable. Congress and President Donald Trump can fix this quickly if they choose to. Washington’s talents for creative accounting are legendary; let’s direct that creativity toward honoring victims rather than protecting foreign regimes. The families who showed up on Capitol Hill deserve nothing less.
