House bill limits closing of prison

Cuba inmates focus of effort

WASHINGTON -- The House on Thursday worked through a $570 billion defense spending bill that imposes new restrictions on President Barack Obama's handling of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and his attempts to close the U.S. prison there.

Republicans and some Democrats have repeatedly blocked any effort to shutter the prison that houses terror suspects. Congressional furor over Obama's trade last month of five Taliban leaders for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl prompted a bipartisan effort to add new obstacles. Lawmakers were upset that Obama failed to notify Congress of the exchange within 30 days, as is normally required by law.

The bill would bar 85 percent of the funds in the account for overseas conflicts until Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reassures Congress that congressional notification on Guantanamo transfers will be respected. The House considered dozens of amendments Thursday and planned to vote on the bill today. If it passes, it must be reconciled with a Senate version, which has not yet been written.

Republican Rep. Tom Cotton of Arkansas introduced an amendment to the appropriations bill late Thursday afternoon that would prevent the expenditure of any defense appropriations on relocating detainees from the Guantanamo detention facility to their country of origin or to any foreign country for the next year.

Cotton said on the House floor Thursday that he was proposing the amendment to prevent another prisoner swap like the one used by Obama to gain freedom for Bergdahl last month. He said the swap took power away from Congress and released dangerous prisoners, whom he nicknamed the Taliban five.

"The 149 prisoners remaining in Guantanamo are not goat herders. ... They are bomb makers and intelligence experts," he said. "Yes, in the releases of the past, many were less dangerous terrorists. But 120 of the 149 remaining detainees are of high risk to return to the battlefield."

Opponents said the amendment was unnecessary because of four other similar amendments to the appropriation bill proposed throughout the discussion.

They also cited statistics about the cost of keeping prisoners in the Guantanamo facility, saying they'd prefer to have the ability to transfer prisoners and close the facility all together.

The amendment passed by a voice vote, but another member asked for a recorded vote, which was to happen late Thursday night.

The other members of Arkansas' House delegation, all Republicans, said they supported the amendment or were still looking at the effects.

Rep. Tim Griffin endorsed the measure in an emailed statement Thursday.

"The president violated the law when he failed to notify Congress before releasing five Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay, endangering our soldiers abroad and our citizens at home," Griffin wrote. "Congressman Cotton's amendment to the bill that funds our national defense is a common sense solution to check the president's power and ensure that the terrorists at GITMO stay at GITMO."

A spokesman for Rep. Steve Womack said the congressman supported the amendment, but said that as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Womack had included language in the defense spending bill to ensure that communication breakdowns -- like the one that led to the recent prisoner release without congressional notification -- would not be tolerated.

Rep. Rick Crawford was still studying the proposal hours before the vote, his office said.

The administration exchanged Bergdahl, held captive by the Taliban since 2009, for five Taliban officials who had been at Guantanamo for more than a decade. The five were sent to Qatar, where they are to remain for a year.

During debate Thursday, the House added another limit on the president's handling of detainees, voting 238-179 for an amendment by Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., that also would bar funds for transferring Guantanamo detainees to Yemen.

The legislation for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 would provide the funds for military operations, including actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as weapons and military personnel. The White House has objected to the legislation, complaining about the Guantanamo restrictions and attempts to spare weapons from Pentagon cost-cutters.

Wary of U.S. re-engagement in Iraq three years after combat troops left, two Democrats -- Reps. John Garamendi of California and Colleen Hanabusa of Hawaii -- hoped to force a vote on an amendment requiring the president to seek congressional approval for sustained military action in Iraq.

It was unclear whether House leaders would allow a vote on that amendment amid the spreading chaos in Iraq and Obama's plans to dispatch military advisers to help quell the growing insurgency.

Garamendi said Obama's efforts to boost security at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad should require no congressional action, but he said unmanned air strikes amount to an act of war and need approval.

"There are many people in the House of Representatives that are deeply concerned about the slippery slope that we are apparently about to step on," Garamendi said.

He argued that constitutional separation of powers must be respected and that Congress has the power to declare war.

The overall spending bill would provide a 1.8 percent pay raise for military personnel, more than the 1 percent that the Obama administration proposed, and accepts the Pentagon's plan to retire A-10 Warthog, the close air support aircraft popular in Congress.

Information for this article was contributed by Donna Cassata of The Associated Press and by Claudia Lauer of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

A Section on 06/20/2014

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