[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 155 (Wednesday, September 9, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5521-S5522]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. COLLINS:
  S. 4554. A bill to provide compensation for United States victims of 
Libyan state sponsored terrorism, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on the Judiciary.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Justice for 
the Living Victims of Lockerbie Act. This bill would create a process 
to seek justice for a group Pan American World Airways pilots who lost 
their careers and pensions following the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 
over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the subsequent bankruptcy and closure of 
Pan Am.
  On December 21, 1988, the state of Libya committed an infamous act of 
terror by bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 
270 innocent civilians. Despite Pan Am's greatly improved financial 
position in 1988, the media coverage of the terrorist attack wreaked 
havoc on Pan Am sales leading to its bankruptcy in 1991.
  In 2008, the United States entered into the U.S.-Libya Humanitarian 
Settlement Agreement, in which Libya paid $1.5 billion to settle claims 
by U.S. citizens for Libyan-sponsored terrorism. After payments by the 
State Department to families of death victims from Lockerbie and the La 
Belle Disco bombing in Germany, compensation to other victims was to be 
determined by the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission. The Commission 
could only consider further claims referred to it by the State 
Department.
  One of these claimants was a group of senior Pan Am pilots, most of 
whom were veterans, who were over the age of 50 and lost their jobs, 
pensions, healthcare, and eventually their savings when Pan Am went 
bankrupt and closed. Due to the federally required retirement age of 60 
at that time, and the airline industry's seniority system, they were 
unable to get new pilot jobs with other airlines. Two of these pilots 
reside in Maine--Ron Fitch of Poland Spring and Schafer Bean of Diamond 
Cove--and I have heard their stories and their pleas for Justice on 
behalf of their own families and the others who suffered as a result of 
Libya's acts of terrorism.
  This group's initial lawsuit against Libya, which had been joined 
with the families of those who died at Lockerbie, was dismissed by the 
courts due to sovereign immunity. Following the 2008 settlement 
agreement with Libya, the group of pilots approached the State 
Department in 2009 seeking the necessary referral to have their claims 
heard by the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission. For more than 4 
years the State Department failed to refer the group's claims to the 
Commission, but following bipartisan letters to then-Secretaries 
Clinton and Kerry signed by myself and more than 60 other Members of 
Congress, the State Department finally referred the claims in 2013.
  After an initial denial of claims in a preliminary ruling by the 
Commission in July 2016, the group of pilots was granted a hearing in 
December 2016. So many of the pilots and their families attended the 
hearing that it was moved to a U.S. District Court courtroom in 
Washington, DC. Three senior Pan Am executives testified at the 
hearing, including the former Pan Am CEO, Thomas Plaskett; former Pan 
Am senior vice president for finance, Ramesh Punwani; and former Pan Am 
vice president of strategic planning, Peter Pappas. Each explained why 
the Lockerbie bombing and the subsequent media coverage directly caused 
the airline's collapse.
  In January 2018, more than a year following that hearing, the 
Commission ruled against the pilots. Using an undefined standard of 
proof and applying international law, the Commission argued that Pan 
Am's demise was not caused by the Lockerbie bombing, contrary to the 
testimony of the former Pan Am executives themselves. The pilots' 
referred claim was the very last of the Libyan claims adjudicated by 
the Commission, and the Libya settlement fund is now exhausted from the 
claims it approved prior to the final adjudication of the pilots' 
claims.

[[Page S5522]]

  These terrorism victims were denied an opportunity to even make their 
case for 4 years by the Department of State, and when finally referred 
to the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, they were forced to wait 
another 3 years for a preliminary ruling and another 2 years for a 
final decision, by which point the Commission had already awarded 
claims that essentially exhausted the settlement funds provided by 
Libya. That simply is not fair, and I believe these Mainers and other 
Americans deserve a quick and fair process to compensate them for their 
losses.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in working toward justice for all of 
the victims of the Lockerbie bombing perpetrated by Libya.

                          ____________________