Gardner, Jenkins decry use of federal dollars for Guantanamo relocation evaluation

Legislative leaders highlighted the recent release of a document detailing federal spending on surveying sites for the relocation of Guantanamo Bay detainees despite prohibitions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) and U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) reacted to the release of a Department of Defense (DOD) document that detailed $11,064 in federal spending to evaluate possible relocation sites in Colorado and Kansas.

Gardner said that the Obama administration’s use of federal dollars to explore relocation sites for Guantanamo Bay detainees “is in direct contradiction to federal law” because it’s prohibited under the NDAA of 2015.

“Nearly one year ago, I wrote President Obama asking what legal basis he has for transferring prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to the United States and how the administration can legally spend money to send a scouting team to Colorado, and have yet to receive a response,” Gardner said. “I will pursue all potential options available to hold the administration accountable for its illegal action, and continue to work to ensure that the terrorists in Guantanamo Bay stay in Cuba and out of our backyards.”

Gardner has introduced measures that would prohibit the use of U.S. airspace to transfer detainees to the U.S., prohibit the transfer of detainees to known terrorist havens, and prevent the president from terminating or modifying the Guantanamo Bay lease without congressional approval.

In addition to sites in Colorado, the DOD report also outlined the use of federal dollars to survey Fort Leavenworth in Kansas as a potential relocation site.

Jenkins said that the document is an example of Obama “ignoring public opinion to push a proposal that would endanger American national security and is opposed by the American people.”

“Since I came to Congress, I have led the fight to pass legislation which has banned the use of funds to close Guantanamo Bay — a law that the president’s own attorney general admits strictly prohibits any government spending for that purpose,” Jenkins said. “That law has passed every year that the president has been in office. Now, nearly eight years later, the president has evidently chosen to waste more taxpayer money on a proposal he knows would be illegal to enact. Unfortunately, this is just one more example of the president putting his legacy above the interests and safety of Americans.”

Jenkins previously introduced a measure to permanently prohibit the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison and to halt all detainee transfers through September 2017.