Senate passes bill to ban Guantanamo detainees from US

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Congress sent President Barack Obama a $607 billion defense policy bill that he is expected to sign even though he adamantly opposes its ban on moving some Guantanamo Bay detainees to U.S. prisons.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved the bill, 91-3, on Tuesday just days after the House passed the bipartisan measure, 370-58. The legislation authorizes Pentagon spending on military personnel, ships, aircraft and other war-fighting equipment.

The president plans to send Congress a blueprint for fulfilling his campaign pledge to close the U.S. prison in Cuba. But the plan is widely expected to be dead on arrival on Capitol Hill, with Republicans and some Democrats opposed to any move to detain some of the terror subjects on U.S. soil.

The congressional decision to retain a ban on transferring detainees to the U.S. has prompted debate on whether the president will try to bypass Congress and close the prison through executive action. “We know he’s contemplating it,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama would sign the bill because it includes provisions critical to protecting the United States. But he said the president’s signature does not change his position about the need to close the prison.

To do so, however, Obama would have to ignore the will of Congress.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said if Obama issued an executive order on Guantanamo it “clearly would violate the law.”