Dec

Obama’s Plan to Move Gitmo Detainees Hit a Snag – Considered Circumventing Congress

This would be good news, if not for the fact that the Obama administration will do anything to get its way.

The New York Times reported Obama was unable to convinve the big spending Congress to include an extra $200 million in the military budget to buy him a prison in Illinois.

Rebuffed this month by skeptical lawmakers when it sought finances to buy a prison in rural Illinois, the Obama administration is struggling to come up with the money to replace the Guantánamo Bay prison.

[...]

While Mr. Obama has acknowledged that he would miss the Jan. 22 deadline for closing the prison that he set shortly after taking office, the administration appeared to take a major step forward last week when he directed subordinates to move “as expeditiously as possible” to acquire the Thomson Correctional Center, a nearly vacant maximum-security Illinois prison, and to retrofit it to receive Guantánamo detainees.

But in interviews this week, officials estimated that it could take 8 to 10 months to install new fencing, towers, cameras and other security upgrades before any transfers take place. Such construction cannot begin until the federal government buys the prison from the State of Illinois.

The federal Bureau of Prisons does not have enough money to pay Illinois for the center, which would cost about $150 million. Several weeks ago, the White House approached the House Appropriations Committee and floated the idea of adding about $200 million for the project to the military spending bill for the 2010 fiscal year, according to administration and Congressional officials.

But Democratic leaders refused to include the politically charged measure in the legislation. When lawmakers approved the bill on Dec. 19, it contained no financing for Thomson.

The administration will try again in the spring to obtain funding of Obama’s prison. But if that doesn’t work, there’s always Plan B.

Frustrated by the difficulties in obtaining financing from Congress, administration officials had discussed invoking a little-known statute that would allow the president to declare a national emergency and then use military funds allocated for other construction projects to buy and retrofit the Illinois prison.

They’ve tabled that idea. For now. But it has to make you wonder – if they would consider declaring a national emergency to buy a prison, what would they stop at to pass the rest of Obama’s agenda?

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Related: Michele Bachmann and Andrew McCarthy outined what Congress can do to keep the KSM terror trial out of New York City.

Via memeorandum

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