Language included in the 2015 Defense authorization bill approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 22 may provide what Committee Chair Carl Levin (MI-D) termed “a path to close Guantánamo.”
During his campaign for the presidency, and immediately after taking office in 2009, President Obama pledged to close the U.S. naval installation in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which now holds 154 prisoners; however, Congress has thwarted his efforts to transfer the detainees to facilities in the United States. The committee’s action could represent a new opportunity for the President to fulfill his promise.
The defense bill authorizes the transfer of terror suspects to U.S. soil “for detention, trial, and incarceration, subject to stringent security measures and legal protections, once the President has submitted a plan to Congress for closing Guantánamo and Congress has had an opportunity to disapprove that plan under expedited procedures.” The bill also authorizes the temporary transfer of detainees to a U.S. medical facility operated by the Defense Department “to prevent death or significant imminent harm.”
The provision calls for an “expedited,” filibuster-proof process that would work as follows: The President would present to Congress a detailed plan to close Guantánamo and transfer the detainees to secure prisons in the United States. The plan would have to include legal strategies for each inmate, including where they would be tried and what security arrangements would be put in place for them. Congress could then pass a resolution voting down the plan, but assuming the President vetoed that resolution, opponents would have to come up with a two-thirds vote in each chamber to override it ― an unlikely scenario.
All Republicans on the committee approved the Guantánamo language as part of the overall defense bill, making the vote unanimous. Some, however, including the ranking minority member, Senator Jim Inhofe (OK-R), vowed to get it removed. Another Republican on the committee, Senator Kelly Ayotte (NH-R), promised to lead the Senate effort to keep Guantánamo operating, saying, “Bringing members of Al Qaeda and its affiliates to our homeland and telling them they have a right to remain silent defies common sense, represents a serious national security risk, and prevents us from collecting the intelligence we need to prevent future terrorist attacks and save American lives.”
The Guantánamo provision still faces major hurdles in Congress. The full House, also on May 23, defeated an amendment to its defense authorization bill to close Guantanamo by the end of 2016. That proposal, offered by Representative Adam Smith (WA-D), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, failed on a 247 to 177 vote, with 224 Republicans and 23 Democrats opposing it. Supporters are hoping that the more procedurally complex Senate plan stands a better chance of passage.
For more on the Guantánamo controversy, see the January 2012 issue of International Debates on “Prosecuting Suspected Terrorists” and the January 2008 issue of Supreme Court Debates on “Enemy Detainees.”
