USA defense bill clears Senate with Guantanamo restrictions

As recently as last week, the White House said that Obama could try to close the prison and send the prisoners to the United States without congressional approval.

The US Congress has voted overwhelmingly in favor of legislation that extends the ban on transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay to facilities in America, challenging President Barack Obama’s renewed push to close the prison before he leaves office in January of 2017.

The $607-billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the Senate with a veto-proof 91-3, with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. The White House rejected the funding measure in part because it would continue to block his efforts to close the Guantanamo prison.

Although Obama clearly does not agree with the provisions related to Guantanamo, as of this report, he has not threatened to veto the bill.

“Well, they set it up by executive action, there was no authorization of Guantanamo”, said Sen. “But I certainly wouldn’t, as I mentioned last week, take that option off the table”.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon on Tuesday welcomed the new NDAA bill, and insisted its continued commitment with the White House to closing Guantanamo.

He later added that much in the overall bill is necessary to run and protect the United States, “and so that’s why I would expect that you would see the president sign the NDAA when it comes to his desk”. But Earnest said it would require Capitol Hill lawmakers to “put the national interest ahead of their much more narrow, and in comparison trivial, political interest”.

Under the defense policy bill, the ban on closing Guantanamo would be lifted only if the Defense Department provides – and Congress approves – a plan for the disposition of detainees held at the facility.

Obama vetoed the original defense policy bill over a larger spending issue.

That was enough to calm most congressional opposition to the measure, which has been signed into law for 53 consecutive years.

Among other things, the package appropriates $300 million to help Ukraine in its fight against Russian-backed separatists.

Other possibilities include the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks and Midwest Joint Regional Corrections Facility at Leavenworth, Kan.; the Federal Correctional Complex, which includes Supermax in Florence, Colo.; and the Colorado State Penitentiary II in Canon City, Colo., also known as the Centennial Correctional Facility. This version of the legislation reflects the changes agreed to in the budget, which includes $5 billion in cuts.