An Empirical Analysis of Payments to Victims of the September 11th Attacks and Their Families

We have been asked by Kristen Breitweiser, Marie Halloran, and Patricia Ryan—widows of the
September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks—to provide an empirical analysis of payments from the United
States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund (“Fund” or “USVSST Fund”).¹

The Fund was designed to compensate individuals who hold final judgements against state sponsors of terror or certain statutory awards. Our analysis addresses the three questions below.²

Do the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks and their families receive equitable
payments from the Fund relative to other eligible claimants? No. Since the change in payment
methodology mandated in the USVSST Fund Clarification Act, 9/11-related claimants have received
substantially smaller distributions than non-9/11-related claimants, both on a percentage basis and on a
dollar basis. In the absence of this change in payment methodology, 9/11-related claimants would have
received an additional $1.5 billion from the Fund—an average of over $100,000 per eligible claimant.

Under existing conditions, will the outstanding eligible claims of 9/11-related claimants be fully
awarded prior to the Fund’s termination in 2039? No. At the current rate of funding, 9/11-related
claimants will receive less than 15 percent of their eligible claims by the Fund’s termination in 2039.
Even if the Fund’s termination were delayed indefinitely, it would take over a century for the Fund to
award 9/11-related claimants the entirety of their eligible claims.

If there are inequities in the Fund, how might these best be redressed and rectified? Ending the
bifurcated payment structure instituted by the USVSST Fund Clarification Act would ensure equitable
payments in the future; bringing 9/11-related claimants to parity with similarly situated non-9/11-related
claimants would rectify the inequities of the past. Specifically, aligning payments to 9/11-related
claimants with those of other claimants who joined the Fund at the same time would result in $8.4
billion in restitution.³ In addition, bringing 9/11-related claimants who were excluded from initial
distributions to parity with claimants admitted at the Fund’s outset would provide $5.4 billion in
restitution.

You can read the full report, published by Edgeworth here.

You can read Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP's full memorandum here.

CITATIONS

¹ Our names are August Graue, Riley Mears, and Matthew Milner. We are economists at Edgeworth Economics who focus on the analysis of complex issues in litigation matters and public policy debates. We have conducted this analysis and all associated work on a pro bono basis.

² Our analysis relies on publicly available information from the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”). A list of the materials we have relied upon to develop our analysis is attached as Appendix A of this paper.

³ While absent the Fund's bifurcated payment structure, 9/11-related claimants would have received an additional $1.5 billion due to the equalization of payment percentages across claimant groups, bringing 9/11-related claimants to parity with the higher payment percentages actually received by non-9/11-related claimants would require a considerably larger $8.4 billion in restitution.