Republicans Brush Off House Democrats’ Latest Plan to Close Guantanamo Bay

A Democratic-led effort in the House of Representatives to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility is facing ridicule from Republicans, who have expressed opposition to the plan.

The Guantanamo Bay detention facility is a U.S territory in Cuba that came into existence in January 2002 under President George W. Bush in the early days of the so-called “War on Terror.”

A thousand Marines from Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina, were scrambled across the Gulf of Mexico to quickly build the facility as a place to hold alleged terrorists awaiting trial in the United States or before a military tribunal.

Guantanamo Bay has been controversial since it was founded in 2002, as were the Iraq War, begun under the false pretense of the presence of weapons of mass destruction, and the Afghanistan War, in which the United States tried and fail to unroot the Taliban terrorist organization which has since taken over the nation.

Now, House Democrats are making another largely symbolic push to close the facility, which houses some of the most dangerous terrorists captured overseas. After over 20 years in existence, the facility now houses only 39 detainees.

A provision in the Democrats’ draft of a bill to fund the Department of Defense through fiscal year 2023, which has passed the Democrat-held House Appropriations Committee, would close the detention center for good.

The provision reads simply, “None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to operate the detention facility at United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after September 30, 2023.”

No Money For Guantanamo

House Appropriations Chair Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) defended the measure in a statement to The Hill.

Currently, the United States spends about $540 million of taxpayer money on the facility annually, McCollum said, adding that it would be better used

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