US Congress advances legislation to close Guantanamo Bay military jail

Biden hopes to shut down infamous facility with Democrats aiding his efforts despite obstructing Obama on the issue

Guantanamo Bay still houses 40 inmates. AFP

The US Congress on Wednesday advanced legislation that would close the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison, significantly boosting President Joe Biden’s odds of fulfilling his campaign promise to shutter the detention facility.

The defence spending panel in the House of Representatives advanced its annual appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2022, which includes a ban on using US funds “to operate the detention facility” at Guantanamo Bay beyond September 2022.

This marks the first time that Congress has included language that would force the White House to close Guantanamo Bay.

It marks a major turnaround from the Barack Obama administration, when Congress insisted on maintaining restrictions that thwarted the White House’s attempts to close the prison — even when Democrats fully controlled the legislative branch from 2009 to 2010.

Betty McCollum, the new chairwoman of the defence spending panel, told The National this year that she would work with the Biden administration on closing the prison.

“For nearly two decades, the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has undermined the US commitment to human rights and proven to be a stain on the soul of America and our values,” Ms McCollum told The National in February.

NBC News reported this month that the Biden administration is hoping to make headway on closing the prison by transferring some of the remaining 40 prisoners out of the facility before the 20th anniversary of September 11.

The prison held nearly 800 inmates at its peak under former president George W Bush, who first opened the facility.

Although Congress hindered Mr Obama’s efforts to close the prison, he tried emptying it by transferring prisoners to third-party countries. By the end of his presidency, the prison held 41 inmates — down from 242 when he took office.

Even progressive stalwarts such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren voted against easing the restrictions that hindered Mr Obama’s efforts to shutter Guantanamo Bay in 2013.

But congressional Democrats increasingly started to jump on board closing the facility under former president Donald Trump, who did not send additional inmates to the prison despite his 2016 campaign pledge to do so.

House Democrats unsuccessfully attempted to remove long-standing provisions that blocked the White House from closing the prison in last year’s defence spending bill — over Republican objections.

However, Republicans still held the Senate at the time and the restrictions remained in the final spending bill, hindering Mr Biden’s efforts to close the prison through the end of September.

But now that Democrats control the Senate, Mr Biden may be able to succeed where Mr Obama failed, bringing an end to a two decade-long chapter in US history that has fuelled outrage throughout the Middle East and beyond.