Moran Amendment Continues Effort to Close Guantanamo

Press Release

Representative Jim Moran, Northern Virginia Democrat, Ranking Member on the House Appropriations Interior Subcommittee and senior member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, today introduced an amendment to the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Bill for FY'15 to give the U.S. military the autonomy they need to make the best decisions on transferring 77 Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release.

These 77 detainees have been cleared by the intelligence community, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and their home countries. Rep. Moran's amendment would give the administration the authority to bring those not cleared for release to the United States to be charged, tried, and sentenced.

"Guantanamo is a rallying cry for extremists around the world and until we transfer and try these detainees, there is no denying that it's hurting our national security," said Rep. Moran. "Many of these detainees never took up arms against the U.S. and aren't associated with al-Qaeda. How can we expect Americans held captive abroad not be accorded the right to be sentenced and brought to trial, when we continue to hold 154 prisoners in Guantanamo without charge and without trial?"

It currently costs taxpayers $2.67 million a year to house a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, compared to $34,046 per inmate at High Security federal prisons in the U.S. At the same time, there are six Department of Defense facilities where detainees could be held in the United States that are currently only at 48 percent capacity.

The measure was defeated at the final markup of the Appropriations Committee for the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Bill for FY'15.

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