Sen. Pat Roberts headed off an attempt by Sen. John McCain to move the nomination of the top Army civilian forward on Thursday, over concerns that the Guantanamo Bay prison will be moved to Kansas.

Roberts said he has yet to receive assurance from the Obama administration — verbal or otherwise — that it won’t try to close prison facility at Guantanamo Bay through executive action and attempt to bring the remaining detainees to Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He has placed a hold on the nomination of Eric Fanning to be the next Army secretary.