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Fairness for 9/11 Families Technical Fix Act
To amend the Justice for United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act to provide rules for payments to Havlish Settling Judgment Creditors.
Summary
The bill amends the Justice for United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act to modify payment rules for a specific group of claimants known as Havlish Settling Judgment Creditors, who hold eligible claims from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. These creditors are exempted from certain distribution restrictions and will receive funds that were previously withheld and held in escrow. The bill allows them to participate in future rounds of payments from the federal terrorism victims fund on the same basis as other eligible claimants. The amendments take effect retroactively as of December 29, 2022.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
7 cosponsors
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Brian K. Fitzpatrick’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Brian K. Fitzpatrick → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Nov 21, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. · house
- Nov 21, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
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Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 21, 2025
Mr. Fitzpatrick (for himself, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Mr. Kean, Mr. Doggett, Mr. Neguse, Mr. Carbajal, and Mr. Pallone) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend the Justice for United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act to provide rules for payments to Havlish Settling Judgment Creditors.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Fairness for 9/11 Families Technical Fix Act”.
SEC. 2. UNITED STATES VICTIMS OF STATE SPONSORED TERRORISM FUND PAYMENTS FOR HAVLISH SETTLING JUDGMENT CREDITORS.
(a) In General.—Section 404 of the Justice for United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act (34 U.S.C. 20144(e)(2)(B)) is amended—
(1) in subsection (e)(2)(B), by adding at the end the following:
“(vi) Exception for the havlish settling judgment creditors.—
“(I) In general.—This subsection does not apply with respect to— “(aa) a Havlish Settling Judgment Creditor who previously elected to participate in the Fund in accordance with clause (iii) or who submitted an application for conditional payment in accordance with clause (iv); or “(bb) the assets, or the net proceeds of the sale of properties or related assets, attributable to a person described in item (aa).
“(II) Release of funds held in escrow.—All funds allocated to a Havlish Settling Judgement Creditor and withheld from distribution under clause
(iv) shall be released and paid to the Havlish Settling Judgement Creditor to whom such withheld funds had been allocated.
“(III) Future payment eligibility.—Each Havlish Settling Judgment Creditor shall be entitled to participate in future rounds of payments in the same manner as all other claimants described in paragraphs
(10) through (14) of subsection (j), irrespective of any application for conditional payment submitted under clause (iv).”; and
(2) in subsection (j), by adding at the end the following paragraph:
“(17) Havlish settling judgment creditor.—The term ‘Havlish Settling Judgment Creditor’ means a plaintiff, an estate or successor in interest thereof, who—
“(A) has an eligible claim under subsection (c) that arises out of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States; and
“(B) is a Settling Judgment Creditor identified in the Order dated April 16, 2014, in the proceedings captioned In re 650 Fifth Avenue and Related Properties, No. 08-CV-10934 (S.D.N.Y.).”.
(b) Effective Date.—The amendments made by subsection (a) shall take effect as if enacted on December 29, 2022. <all>
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