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 on Capitol Hill on Thursday just hours after the House passed the bill, 370-58. 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 that 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 the plan with Congress.
Republicans and some Democrats in Congress have blocked Obama’s effort for years.
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 … pushed my button.”
Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado said the facility being considered to house Guantanamo detainees in his state is a closed state prison that would cost millions to retrofit. He said the administration has violated current law that bans taxpayer money from being used to “assist in the transfer” of detainees.
“It’s hard for me to believe that you can send a team of experts to analyze where you’re going to send detainees to fulfill a campaign promise if you haven’t spent any money,” he said.
Roberts said the White House plan has not yet been presented in any detail to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
