The words that come up most often in a 9/11 recovery, defined plainly. This is education, not legal or tax advice; your eligibility and any tax question route to your counsel and CPA.
- Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA)
- The law that makes a foreign country presumptively immune from being sued in a United States court. A family can reach that country only through a specific statutory exception.
- State sponsor of terrorism
- A country the United States has formally designated. As of August 2026 four are designated: Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Syria (a process to rescind Syria's designation is underway and could conclude in late August 2026). Only a designated country can be reached under the Section 1605A exception, which is the door the USVSST Fund is keyed to.
- 28 U.S.C. Section 1605A
- The FSIA state-sponsor-of-terrorism exception. It removes immunity only from a designated country, and it is the exception behind the 9/11 families' judgments against Iran and the USVSST Fund's eligibility rule.
- JASTA (28 U.S.C. Section 1605B)
- The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, enacted as Public Law 114-222 in 2016. It reaches a foreign country for an act of international terrorism on United States soil whether or not the country is a designated state sponsor, and it is the basis for the 9/11 case against Saudi Arabia. A JASTA recovery does not feed the USVSST Fund.
- USVSST Fund
- The United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund (34 U.S.C. Section 20144). It pays holders of a qualifying final judgment against a designated state sponsor, pro-rata and in rounds, until it terminates on January 2, 2039.
- VCF
- The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, a separate federal program on a separate legal basis. Whether you filed a VCF claim does not decide USVSST eligibility, and a VCF award is not subtracted from a USVSST payment.
- Final judgment
- An enforceable United States district-court judgment, with all appeals finished. Holding a qualifying final judgment against a designated state sponsor is the USVSST eligibility key. A judgment is not a payment.
- Compensatory damages
- The category of damages a USVSST claim is based on. By statute it excludes pre- and post-judgment interest and punitive damages.
- The 50/50 split
- Since 2019 (Public Law 116-69), the Fund must divide each distribution in half, 50 percent to 9/11-related claims and 50 percent to non-9/11 claims, then pay each side pro-rata. Because 9/11 claimants are the larger group, halving the pot yields a smaller per-dollar recovery on the 9/11 side.
- Pro-rata distribution
- Each round pays eligible claims as a percentage of the amounts outstanding and unpaid, out of what is available that round. The percentage is specific to each round, and by law no one can predict a future round's percentage.
- Family caps
- The Act sets a $20 million individual cap, a $35 million cap for a family group of the victim, spouse, and dependents, and a lower $20 million cap for a group of non-dependent parents or siblings.
- Round
- A distribution cycle. In the sixth round (authorized December 2025, paid January 2026), the 9/11 payment percentage was 1.64 percent and the non-9/11 percentage was 5.24 percent, on the same capped-judgment basis. A seventh round has been announced, with at least $275 million anticipated and payments authorized by January 1, 2027; the final amount is not set until after fiscal year 2026 closes.
