I like the idea of this bill a lot. Obama shouldn’t be allowed to transfer anymore detainees out of Guantanamo Bay. This bill doesn’t stop all of them from being released, just the really important ones.
But of course he says he’ll veto it if it passes:
THE HILL – President Obama would veto a bill offered by Senate Republicans that would effectively block the transfer of detainees from Guantánamo Bay for the remainder of his presidency, the White House said Thursday.
The bill would suspend the transfer of high- or medium-risk terror suspects, and prohibit the president from sending a detainee to a country where a former Guantánamo prisoner returned and reengaged in terrorist activities.
It would also repeal an existing law that gives the president authority to transfer detainees, and reinstate a ban on detainees being returned to Yemen, which is currently undergoing a tumultuous and violent political transition.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the legislation would put “more constraints on a process that should be actually working faster,” according to the Associated Press. He reiterated the White House’s position that the prison at Guantánamo put U.S. national security at risk.The legislation was introduced by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and backed by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.).