An effort to continue preventing the Obama administration from relocating Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States has remained in the latest iteration of the annual defense policy bill finalized this week.
House Republican Leadership announced Tuesday that the chamber will seek to pass the restrictions. They had been cited last month by the President as a problematic aspect of the must-pass bill when he vetoed it.
The primary change in the latest National Defense Authorization Act is less money for the Department of Defense. The new legislation would give the Pentagon $5 billion less than the previous NDAA rejected by President Obama. The amount would align Congressional planning with levels agreed upon in a separate budget deal signed into law by Obama on Monday.
In his Oct. 22 veto statement, while bemoaning Republicans’ insistence that Guantanamo detainees be prevented by statute from transfer to certain countries including the US, President Obama first noted his opposition to “an irresponsible budget gimmick” used to set defense spending levels above those agreed to in the sequestration budget.
The spending tweaks could be sufficient to convince the president to put away the veto pen this time around, if the new bill passes Congress. President Obama has begrudgingly signed previous defense policy bills that have included restrictions on Guantanamo Bay transfers, though he has also accompanied that approval with signing statements decrying the provisions.
