Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) says he is “disappointed” a provision to speed up the closure of the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, did not make it into a compromise defense policy bill.
“We pushed hard to get [the] Senate provision adopted,” Levin, the retiring chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters on Wednesday.
{mosads}“We could not get the Republicans,” he added, suggesting that, if Democrats had kept pressing the issue, “there wouldn’t be a bill.”
The Senate draft of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) included a measure allowing the Defense secretary to move detainees from the facility to the U.S.
However, that language was dropped in negotiations between House and Senate lawmakers who hammered out a joint version of the must-pass legislation. The bill was unveiled late Tuesday night.
President Obama has long promised to close the controversial detention camp, but Republicans in both chambers have blocked those plans.
The defense bill keeps in place a number of restrictions, including bans on transferring detainees to the U.S. and on constructing new detention facilities on home soil.
Levin derided that approach, saying it maintained the “status quo.” He said the “only practical option open” to the president is to continue sending detainees to third-party countries, where they can be monitored.
“I wish it were otherwise,” Levin said. “I think we ought to be more than willing to detain and try terrorists in this country.”