Congress passed legislation that created the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, which was later amended to the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund Clarification Act and the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021. The goal of the USVSST is to provide compensation to those individuals harmed by state-sponsored terrorism.

What Does the USVSST Fund Do? Generally speaking, the USVSST Fund will award compensation to the individuals injured through terrorism that have been victims of attacks by terrorists and that have secured final judgments in a United States district court, garnering compensatory damages that arose from an act of international terrorism (and in which the terrorist was found not immune from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act).

The personal representatives of a deceased individual also fall under this umbrella of the USVSST. The Act usually requires that claimants submit an application not later than 90 days after the date of obtaining a final judgment. Claimants are required to meet all USVSST fund requirements to receive their allocated payment amounts, and all claimants have a continuing obligation to update claim information.