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Dems strip funding to close Gitmo under pressure from GOP
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
05/19/09 7:30 PM EDT
The Senate stripped $80 million from a war funding bill that would have allowed the Obama Administration to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The decision followed a similar move in the House last week and allowed Republicans to claim a rare legislative victory.
Republicans have opposed closing the prison, which houses 240 terror suspects. But shuttering the Cuba facility has been a top priority for Democrats and was one of President Barack Obama's major campaign promises.
Republicans, however, had the advantage that voters seemed strongly opposed to the idea that the government would relocate the terror suspects to U.S. prisons.
"Once the majority leader figured out the American people were paying attention to this, he had to react," said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. "And I'm glad."
Democrats stripped the funding to close Guantanamo out of the supplemental spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the face of a GOP amendment that would have prohibited the relocation of prisoners to the United States.
Obama has not yet indicated where he plans to move the prisoners, and until he does, the money will be held back, Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday.
"We will never allow them to be relocated in the United States," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.
Reid added he would block funding even if prisoners are only tried here and moved elsewhere later.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Democrats were left vulnerable to GOP opposition because Obama has not told them where he plans to move the prisoners.
"We were in a tough position to debate the Republicans because we don't know the president's plan," Durbin said.
Durbin added that Senate will reconsider the funding once Obama tells them where the prisoners would go.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that despite Congress, the January deadline for closing the detention center is non-negotiable. He said Obama will disclose his plans for the Guantanamo prisoners in a speech on Thursday.
"We're going to work with Congress on a timeline that makes sense for us and for them," Gibbs said. "There has been no change in the date on the executive order."
White House Correspondent Julie Mason Contributed to this report.
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