[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 24, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S967-S968]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY LEADER

  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.


                          GUANTANAMO DETAINEES

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, President Obama has left the American 
people to wait for many years for a serious plan--one that poses no 
additional risk to our Nation or our Armed Forces, for instance--in 
pursuit of his desire to close a secure detention facility at 
Guantanamo Bay. Americans have been waiting for 7 long years to find 
out what the serious plan might look like. They are still waiting 
today.
  What the President sent to Congress yesterday isn't a plan. It is 
more of a research project than anything. It does call on Congress, 
however, to act. It turns out we already have. Congress has repeatedly, 
over and over again, voted to enact clear, bipartisan prohibitions on 
the very thing the President is again calling for, and that is the 
transfer of Guantanamo Bay terrorists into our local communities. We 
have enacted bipartisan prohibitions in Congresses with split party 
control. We have enacted bipartisan prohibitions in Congresses with 
massive, overwhelming Democratic majorities. Just a couple of months 
ago, Members of Congress in both parties expressed themselves clearly 
one more time--not once, but twice, and on an overwhelming bipartisan 
basis. President Obama signed these bipartisan prohibitions into law as 
well. So let's not pretend there is even the faintest of pretenses for 
some pen-and-phone gambit here.
  Congress has acted clearly, repeatedly, and on a bipartisan basis. 
The President now has the duty to follow the laws he himself signed. It 
shouldn't be that hard when you consider his admonition yesterday about 
``upholding the highest standards of rule of law.'' He said: ``As 
Americans, we pride ourselves on being a beacon to other nations, a 
model of the rule of law.'' That is interesting in light of a recent 
GAO ruling that the administration's detainee swap of Taliban prisoners 
for Bowe Bergdahl violated the law. It is especially interesting in 
light of the President's continuing refusal to rule out breaking the 
law if he doesn't get his way on Guantanamo. President Obama's own 
Attorney General says he cannot unilaterally do that. It is clear. 
President Obama's own Defense Secretary says he cannot unilaterally do 
that. President Obama's own top military officer says he cannot 
unilaterally do that. In the words of one of our Democratic colleagues, 
``He's going to have to comply with the legal restrictions.'' It is as 
simple as that--``going to have to comply with the legal 
restrictions.''
  Breaking the law as a way to supposedly uphold the rule of law is 
just as absurd as it sounds. It is time that the President finally 
ruled that option out categorically, and then he should finally move on 
from a years-old campaign promise and focus on the real problem that 
needs solving today.
  My own hope is that the Commander in Chief will not put his own chain 
of command in the position of having to carry out an unlawful direct 
order.
  But, look, closing Guantanamo and transferring terrorists to the 
United States didn't make sense in 2008, and it makes even less sense 
today. We are a nation at war. The administration's efforts to contain 
ISIL thus far have not succeeded. The next President may very well want 
to pursue operations that target, capture, detain, and interrogate 
terrorists because that is how terrorist networks are defeated. Why 
would we take that option away from the next Commander in Chief now?
  Let's be clear: The two options on the table are not keeping 
Guantanamo open or closing it, but keeping Guantanamo terrorists at 
Guantanamo or moving them to some Guantanamo North based in a U.S. 
community. Changing the detention center's ZIP Code is not a solution. 
It is not even serious.
  The fact that the President missed a deadline for submitting a plan 
to defeat ISIL last week--presumably because he was just too busy 
working on his ancient campaign promise--is completely unacceptable.
  Some of the most senior national security officials within President 
Obama's own administration are already working to better position the 
next President for the national security challenges we will face in 
2017. It is time President Obama finally joined them and us in the 
serious work of keeping Americans safe in a dangerous world.

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