Bills
| 3.23.22

Extending the Ban on Prisoner Transfers Out of Gitmo for Two More Years (H.R. 401)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 401?

(Updated November 15, 2020)

This bill seeks to improve national security by limiting the transfer and release of prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. military prison for two years. Specifically, for those two years it prohibits U.S. funds from going to:

  • Build any structure in the U.S. to house anyone who has been detained at Guantanamo Bay.
  • Release anyone being held at the prison into the U.S.
  • Return any Gitmo prisoners to their country of origin.
  • Transport any prisoners to Yemen.

The bill comes with some exceptions and special provisions. Funds can be used to transport individuals if it is for court-ordered reasons. The Secretary of Defense can also waive these rules, provided that the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence can certify that:

  • The government to which they’re being transferred doesn’t support terrorists;
  • If the individual is being transferred to another prison, it’s one run by the country’s government — and that government isn’t going to lose power any time soon;
  • Both the U.S. government and the government to which the individual is being released have determined that they are not a safety risk.

The Secretary of Defense would be able to waive these requirements if verification is impossible. Waivers are also possible if security risks can be mitigated, or if it’s in U.S. security interests. They would also have to issue a report to Congress on the waiver. Preferential treatment for waivers would be given to people that have cooperated with the U.S. government.

Finally, the bill requires that the Secretary of Defense file a report that includes information on all the individuals still housed at Gitmo.

Argument in favor

People are at Guantanamo because they posed and threat, and American lives were lost to put them there. This bill ensures that only those that do not pose a threat to the U.S. government can be released from custody.

Argument opposed

Guantanamo bay stands directly opposed to this country's core values. It is an institution that runs on trampled civil liberties and human rights violations. The president made a promise eight years ago — it's time to end this.

Impact

Prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, their families, U.S. forces that work at Guantanamo Bay, the government of Yemen, national security.

Cost of H.R. 401

The CBO estimates that because the cost of bringing detention operations to the U.S. wouldn't be very different than operating Guantanamo this bill would have no net effect on the federal budget.

Additional Info

Of Note: Way back in 2008, when Barack Obama was just a fiesty junior Senator from Illinois running an anti-establishment presidential campaign, he pledged to do a bunch of things, among them closing down the Guantanamo Bay prison. 

Now, some eight years later, President Obama has a head full of gray hair, and, much to his chagrin, Guantanamo still hasn’t been closed.

Obama has reduced the number of individuals detained at Guantanamo from 242, when he took office, to 93 as of January 2016. An additional 57 have been cleared for release.

Guantanamo inmates are also barred from entering the U.S. According to The Washington Post, government officials are working overtime to get as many people out of Guantanamo as possible before this bill or its companion (potentially) get through Congress.

But Sponsoring Rep. Walorski and her Republican colleagues, like Sen. John McCain, have other ideas. They’re still upset from when Obama transferred five prisoners out of the prison in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl without consulting Congress. And there’s the fact that about three dozen people still at Guantanamo are considered too dangerous to be released. They would likely have to be placed in a supermax facility in the U.S.

In-Depth: An almost identical version of this bill, S. 165, has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH). That version has made it further than this one — having passed through committee.

All of the co-sponsors of this bill are Republicans.


Media:

Summary by James Helmsworth
(Photo Credit: DVIDSHUB)