Mr. Roeder called the experience “the epitome of the roller coaster ride.” He added, “We were sent into harm’s way by our government and then nobody seemed to want to do anything about it.”Over the years, the former hostages had numerous champions in Congress. In recent years, some of their strongest advocates included the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican of Georgia, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, Representative Sean Duffy, Republican of Wisconsin, and Representative Gerald E. Connolly, Democrat of Virginia. All had pushed for stand-alone legislation to compensate the ex-hostages.In a statement, Mr. Reid said that the action by Congress was long overdue. “These Americans, held hostage for 444 days in 1979, deserved to finally be compensated for the horrors that they and their families have survived,” he said.Mr. Sickmann said that he would have preferred that Iran pay compensation directly, as Libya did for victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, but that he did not expect an apology from Iran. “I don’t believe that they will ever, ever apologize,” he said. “They don’t believe that they did anything wrong.”Some former hostages and their family members had expressed frustration at the Justice and State Departments for blocking efforts over the years to get compensation. In a sense, the spending bill represents Congress’s taking control of the BNP Paribas money back from the Justice Department.Some hostages did not want to discuss the legislation. “It’s enough,” said Barry Rosen, who was a press attaché at the embassy. “We’ve gone through enough.”Correction: December 28, 2015An article on Friday about compensation for the Americans taken hostage at the United States Embassy in Tehran in 1979 misidentified, in some editions, the party affiliation of Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia, who promoted legislation for years to compensate the Americans. He is a Democrat, not a Republican.
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