House votes to block Obama from releasing any more Guantanamo detainees [View all]
Source: Chicago Tribune
House Republicans are rallying around a measure that would prevent President Barack Obama from releasing any more detainees from Guantanamo Bay until Congress can come up with a new defense policy bill.
The House on Thursday passed the bill on a 244 to 174 vote, but even some leading Republican House members acknowledge privately that it stands almost no chance of being approved by the Senate. The White House has also threatened to veto the bill.
Still, the House's vote represents a final showdown in the eight-year struggle between Republicans and President Barack Obama, who have been fiercely at odds over the future of the detention facility housing suspected terrorists that Obama has vowed to close.
Congress -- with the help of both Democrats and Republicans -- has successfully kept Obama from shuttering the Guantanamo Bay prison camp through a series of maneuvers in annual defense policy and funding bills. But the president has still maintained the right to transfer detainees to third party countries.
In August, the president approved the largest single transfer of detainees -- 15, sent to the United Arab Emirates -- of his administration, leaving the population at 61.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-guantanamo-detainees-20160915-story.html
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