US House passes sweeping $638 billion defense bill
The US House overwhelmingly passed a sweeping, $638 billion defense bill on Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House overwhelmingly passed a sweeping, $638 billion defense bill on Friday that would block President Barack Obama from closing the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and limit his efforts to reduce nuclear weapons.
Ignoring a White House veto threat, the Republican-controlled House voted 315-108 for the legislation.
The House bill containing provisions on punishment for sex-related crimes in the armed forces that the Obama administration supports as well as the detention policies that it vigorously opposes must be reconciled with a Senate version before heading to the president s desk. The Senate measure, expected to be considered later this year, costs $13 billion less than the House bill a budgetary difference that also will have to be resolved.
The defense policy bill authorizes money for aircraft, weapons, ships, personnel and the war in Afghanistan in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 while blocking the Pentagon from closing domestic bases.
The measure bars the Pentagon or the National Nuclear Security Agency from spending any money to implement the new START treaty with Russia that the Senate ratified in December 2010 until the defense secretary provides certain information on reducing the U.S. nuclear arsenal to Congress.
Despite last-minute lobbying by Obama counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco, the House soundly rejected Obama s repeated pleas to shutter Guantanamo. In recent weeks, the president implored Congress to close the facility, citing its prohibitive costs and its role as a recruiting tool for extremists.
A hunger strike by more than 100 of the 166 prisoners protesting their conditions and indefinite confinement has prompted the fresh calls for closure.
Obama is pushing to transfer approved detainees there are 86 to their home countries and lift a ban on transfers to Yemen. Fifty-six of the 86 are from Yemen.
The House voted down an amendment to close the naval detention center by Dec. 31, 2014, on a 249-174 vote. It also backed an amendment to stop the president from transferring any detainees to Yemen. That vote was 236-188.
The restrictions in the House bill put it at odds with the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The Senate Armed Services Committee s bill gives the Defense Department additional flexibility to transfer Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. and other countries, with the objective of closing the detention facility there.
But, in a move that reflects deep divisions on Capitol Hill over Guantanamo s future, the committee did not hold votes on the provision in the bill, opting instead to have that debate when the legislation moves to the Senate floor.
In its current form, the Senate committee s legislation would permit transfer of terror suspects to the U.S. if the Pentagon determines that doing so is in the interests of national security and that any public safety issues have been addressed, the committee said Friday in a statement detailing the bill s major provisions.
Detainees could be moved to foreign countries if they are determined to no longer be a threat to U.S. security, the transfers are pursuant to court orders, or the individuals have been tried and acquitted, or have been convicted and completed their sentences.
Transfers to third countries also could occur if the Pentagon determines the move supports U.S. national security interests and steps have been taken "to substantially mitigate the risk of the detainee re-engaging in terrorist activities," the committee said.
