Sen. Chris Murphy recently began the 11th hour of his filibuster over gun laws, which nicely distracted the media from some important developments in the House, none of which is going to make President Obama happy.
Representatives spent the day debating and voting on amendments to the Defense Department appropriations bill, including an amendment introduced by Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) that would prohibit any funds in the appropriations bill from being used to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees to any other location.
The House just voted unanimously to forbid releasing anyone from Gitmo to any other location. Period. Full stop. @CQnow (1st of series).
— John M. Donnelly (@johnmdonnelly) June 15, 2016
Ban on transferring any prisoners from Gitmo is by @RepRichHudson (2nd of series). @CQnow
— John M. Donnelly (@johnmdonnelly) June 15, 2016
.@RepJerryNadler says on floor new amendment means even someone known to be innocent couldn't be released from Gitmo. (3rd of 3) @CQnow
— John M. Donnelly (@johnmdonnelly) June 15, 2016
A source recently suggested to Reuters that President Obama is likely to abandon his promise to close the detention facility, partly because it’s just not the winning issue this election cycle that it was in 2008.
Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) also introduced an amendment that would prohibit the use of funds to survey, assess, or review potential detention locations in the United States for Guantanamo Bay transferees — a process already underway but going nowhere.
Black Lives Matter activist and frequent White House guest DeRay Mckesson likely won’t care for Rep. Dave Reichert’s (R-Wash.) amendment, which would block President Obama’s order against transferring surplus federal equipment to state and local law enforcement.
House voted tonight to block Obama's post-Ferguson order barring transfer to police of armored vehicles, grenade launchers etc. @CQnow
— John M. Donnelly (@johnmdonnelly) June 15, 2016
Mckesson, who has met with Valerie Jarrett to help craft the president’s legacy-building criminal justice reform program, has been shopping his Campaign Zero around D.C., which calls for an end to the supply of federal military weaponry to local police departments under the Defense Department’s excess property program.
In January 2015, President Obama issued an executive order blocking the program, arguing that law enforcement agencies had to be trained not only in the use of the equipment, but also trained on the protection of civil rights and civil liberties and made aware of their obligations under Federal nondiscrimination laws when accepting such equipment.
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