Defense bill Ok’d by House still would hamper closing Guantanamo
WASHINGTON – The House overwhelmingly backed a $607 billion defense bill that would bar President Barack Obama from moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to U.S. prisons, setting up a showdown with Congress over his 2008 campaign pledge to close the Cuban facility.
The long-running dispute heated up Thursday on Capitol Hill just hours after the House passed the bill, 370-58, and sent it to the Senate, which plans a vote early next week. Three Republican senators from Kansas, Colorado and South Carolina – states where the administration has explored housing Guantanamo terror suspects – held a news conference to make it clear they will fight to prevent moving them to U.S. soil.
Closing the prison was a priority of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, and he promised during his first days in office he would eventually shutter the facility, which he argues is costly and gives extremists a recruiting tool.
The administration is finalizing a plan on closing the prison, which houses 112 detainees, but hasn’t said when it will share it with Congress.
Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas on Wednesday placed a hold on Obama’s nominee to be the next Army secretary to prevent the president from trying to bypass Congress by using his executive authorities to close the prison.
“This administration has continually gone around the Congress and tried to figure out which button to push to irritate Congress the most,” said Roberts, whose state includes Fort Leavenworth. “Well he sure as hell has pushed my button.
“As I have said for years and years, we are not going to have terrorists from Gitmo come to Fort Leavenworth, the intellectual center of the Army, or any other location in the United States.”
At a separate news conference, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she is upset the Republicans have prevented Obama from closing Guantanamo, “which he set out to do, and which he had a plan to do – and he does have a plan to do now.”
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest hinted the president might use his executive authority to close the prison. “If Congress continues to refuse,” the president will explore all other options, Earnest said.
When asked again Thursday about the prospect of executive action to shut the prison, Earnest said the administration continues to believe Congress should remove the obstacles it has imposed to closing it.
Among other
things, the bill: