The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has been engaged in a months-long lobbying battle over the “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act” that survived a September veto from President Obama, has hired consulting and lobbying firm The McKeon Group in its ongoing bid to stop Capitol Hill from allowing the families of terrorist attack victims the ability to sue that Arab state.

McKeon Group has been brought on to work as a subcontractor under WPP lobbying giant Glover Park Group, which was initially hired by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in September to provide communications and government relations support.

According to Foreign Agents Registration Act documents filed in November, McKeon Group has been hired to provide communications and government relations counsel for the government of Saudi Arabia in the form of media relations work, as well as legislative and public policy and general foreign policy. McKeon Group will undertake “special advocacy assignments,” according to FARA documents, which may include communication with U.S. government officials, members of Congress and “other individuals involved with public affairs matters and/or in other activities of interest” on matters pertaining to Middle East regional security and counterterrorism.

The McKeon Group was founded by retired Congressman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), who was also formerly chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Fees and the duration of the lobbying firm's work for Saudi Arabia are still undetermined.

The “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act,” also known as S.2040, is the bipartisan bill introduced earlier this year by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and John Cornyn (R-TX). JASTA, which passed Congress on September 9, amends the federal judicial code to allow U.S. citizens the ability to sue foreign governments such as Saudi Arabia in civil court when their family members are the victims of terrorism. A majority of the hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks — 15 of them — were Saudi citizens.

Obama vetoed JASTA in late September, but a majority of Congress famously overrode the President’s decision, thereby allowing the bill to become law. JASTA marked the first veto override of Obama’s presidency.

President-elect Donald Trump in September expressed his support of JASTA and called Obama’s veto of the bill “shameful.”

JASTA has since sent Saudi Arabia into a lobbying frenzy. Aside from hiring Glover Park Group in September, Saudi Arabia also hired Squire Patton Boggs in a $100,000-per-month pact to advise that country’s Royal Court on legal and strategic policy advice. Then, in October, Saudi Arabia also hired law firm King & Spalding to provide advocacy and legal services related to JASTA’s passage to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Commerce and Investment. The same month, the country’s national oil and natural gas company, The Saudi Arabian Oil Company, hired public affairs powerhouse Podesta Group to provide counsel regarding U.S. policy and recent Congressional activities.

The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in November also hired political consultant Fahad Nazer, a senior political analyst at JTG Inc. and a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, to give periodic professional advice and recommendations to the Embassy on matters related to PR, media relations and communications. Nazer, who’s billing the Royal Embassy $7,000 per month for the work, will also field media requests and will occasionally speak and write on issues pertaining to Saudi Arabia, though he is not a representative of the Saudi government and is not authorized to speak on its behalf.

Finally, the Aramco Services Co. in Houston, the U.S. outpost of Saudi Arabia’s national petroleum and natural gas company Aramco, was also enlisted in November to aid its parent company — and the Saudi government, by proxy — with PR support in the form of public and U.S. government outreach that promotes a cultural understanding of Saudi Arabia as well as economic activity and current investment opportunities in that country.

Other lobbying agencies that have recently signed pacts with Saudi Arabia include BGR Group, Hogan Lovells and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.