The House of Representatives used its first regular spending bill for 2010 on Thursday to notify the Obama administration that it will not go along with the current plan by President Barack Obama to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The House voted 259-157 for the $64.4 billion package to fund many of Obama’s law enforcement and science priorities in the budget year starting in October. The bill also takes issue with the president’s Guantanamo plans, denying him money to close the facility next year and establishing strict restrictions for the transfer of detainees.
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Already this week, the House showed its defiance of Obama’s goal of shutting down the facility by approving a $100 billion war-spending bill that stipulates it will not allow the use of federal money to close Guantanamo in the final months of this budget year. That bill passed the Senate Thursday and is heading to the White House.
Both the House and Senate want to impose strict requirements on the administration before current detainees at Guantanamo can be transferred to the United States, U.S. territories or third countries.
The Obama administration already has transferred one terror suspect to New York to stand trial. Another nine have been transferred to other countries and the Obama administration is negotiating with foreign leaders to accept Guantanamo detainees.
The bill passed by the House on Thursday, the first of 12 spending bills Congress must pass for next year, prohibits the release of detainees into the United States during the 2010 budget year. It would allow the transfer to the United States of detainees for prosecution or detention only after Congress has had two months to read a White House report on how it planned to close the detention facility and disperse the inmates.
The House bill also requires the Obama administration to notify lawmakers of any plans to transfer detainees to other countries. It turns down the $60 million the administration had requested to initiate the closure.
But the chamber also rejected an amendment by Rep. Jerry Lewis, a Republican, that strengthened the prohibition by stopping in its tracks funding for any government activity related to closing the facility.
The amendment first went down on a 216-212 vote. After Republicans demanded a recount, it was defeated again, 213-212.
“We need to stop this administration from rushing to transfer or to resettle any more detainees at the expense of an increased risk to Americans,” said Lewis, the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee.
The Obama administration had requested $60 million for the Justice Department to carry out its role in the closure.
Also on Wednesday, that House Armed Services Committee approved a measure, offered by Democratic chairman Ike Skelton to restrict the transfer of detainees. It states that no detainee can be transferred without the president presenting a plan dealing with possible dangers the detainees pose and requires the president to consult with governors or the chief executives of territories on proposed transfers.
The $64.4 billion spending bill funds Commerce, Justice and Science department programs at an amount nearly $7 billion above for the current fiscal year ending in September. Much of that goes to the Census Bureau, which will see its budget jump more than $4 billion, to $7.4 billion, as it prepares for the 2010 census.
The vote kicked off an ambitious effort by House Democrats to pass all 12 spending bills before Congress leaves for its August recess and avoid the budgetary standoffs that have become common in recent years.
Last March, President Barack Obama signed a massive $410 billion “omnibus” that belatedly funded non-defense programs across the federal government. That catchall bill was needed because of the inability of the George W. Bush administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress to reach agreements on separate spending bills.
