Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/597843
ByDebRiechmann The Associated Press WASHINGTON The House overwhelmingly backed a $607 billion defense bill that would bar President Barack Obama from mov- ing Guantanamo Bay de- tainees to U.S. prisons, set- ting up a showdown with Congress over his 2008 campaign pledge to close the Cuban facility. The long-running dis- pute heated up on Capitol Hill on Thursday just hours after the House passed the bill, 370-58. Three Republi- can senators from Kansas, Colorado and South Caro- lina — states where the ad- ministration has explored housing Guantanamo ter- ror suspects — held a news conference to make it clear they will fight to prevent moving them to U.S. soil. Closing the prison was a priority of Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, and he promised during his first days in office that he would eventually shutter the fa- cility, which he argues is costly and gives extremists a recruiting tool. The administration is fi- nalizing a plan on closing the prison, which houses 112 detainees, but hasn't said when it will share it with Congress. Republicans and some Democrats in Congress have blocked Obama's ef- fort for years. Sen. Pat Roberts of Kan- sas on Wednesday placed a hold on Obama's nominee to be the next Army secre- tary to prevent the presi- dent from trying to bypass Congress by using his exec- utive authorities to close the prison. "This administration has continually gone around the Congress and tried to figure out which button to push to irritate Congress the most," said Roberts, whose state includes Fort Leaven- worth. "Well he sure as hell has pushed my button. "As I have said for years and years, we are not go- ing to have terrorists from Gitmo come to Fort Leav- enworth, the intellectual center of the Army, or any other location in the United States." Roberts accused Obama of executive "overreach" and said he would work to continue to withhold con- gressional funds to move detainees to the United States, which currently is against the law. As he spoke, Roberts got visibly angry. "Why do we even have a Congress," he shouted, "if the president can issue an executive or- der on anything and, in this particular case, endanger our national security?" Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who visited Guan- tanamo two weeks ago, said the military prison is a per- fect site because it's hours away from Havana and is surrounded by mountains, water and desert. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest hinted that the president might use his ex- ecutive authority to close the prison. Obama wants to work with Congress to close Guantanamo, but "if Congress continues to re- fuse," the president will ex- plore all other options, Ear- nest said. Obama vetoed the origi- nal defense policy bill over a larger spending issue. But that dispute was resolved, and Obama on Monday signed a bipartisan bud- get bill that avoids a cata- strophic U.S. default and puts off the next round of fighting over federal spend- ing and debt until after next year's presidential and con- gressional elections. The defense bill was trimmed by $5 billion to align it with the budget agreement. Among other things, the bill: • Provides a 1.3 percent pay increase to service members and a new retire- ment option for troops. • Authorizes lethal as- sistance to Ukraine forces fighting Russian-backed rebels. • Extends a ban on tor- ture to the CIA. • Authorizes the presi- dent's request of $715 mil- lion to help Iraqi forces fight Islamic State mili- tants. WASHINGTON Defense bill Ok'd by House would hamper closing Gitmo By Josh Lederman and Emily Swanson The Associated Press WASHINGTON Ameri- cans are souring on Pres- ident Barack Obama's ap- proach to fighting the Is- lamic State, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that also found deep pessimism about U.S. pros- pects for success in Afghan- istan and uncertainty about Obama's plan to leave thou- sands of troops there when he leaves office. More than 6 in 10 now reject Obama's handling of the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, where Obama has been escalating the U.S. military's involvement in a bid to break a vexing stalemate. Support for his approach has followed a downward trajectory since the U.S. formed its coali- tion to fight the group in late 2014. Last September, Americans were roughly split, yet disapproval has jumped 8 percentage points just since January. Those concerns mirror broader trepidation about Obama's management of foreign policy, which gar- nered approval from just 40 percent of Americans in the AP-GfK poll. They come as Obama struggles to demon- strate progress advancing U.S. interests in the Middle East, where Obama hoped to disentangle the U.S. mil- itary after a decade-plus of war but will likely leave three military conflicts on- going when his presidency ends in 2017. Complicating Obama's efforts to strike the right balance, his critics in- clude both those who feel he's betrayed his pledge to keep U.S. troops out of combat in Iraq and Syria and those who argue ex- actly the opposite: that Obama is pursuing half- measures that put U.S. troops at risk but are too paltry to make a decisive difference. 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