DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2014 – President Barack Obama today
signed the annual legislation that keeps the Defense Department running.
The "Carl Levin and Howard P. 'Buck' McKeon National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015," Obama said in a written
statement, “will provide vital benefits for military personnel and their
families, as well as critical contingency authorities needed to counter the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant and to respond to emerging needs in the face of
evolving terrorist threats and emergent crises worldwide.”
The full text of the White House statement follows:
Today I have signed into law H.R. 3979, the "Carl Levin
and Howard P. 'Buck' McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2015." I have signed this annual defense authorization legislation because
it will provide vital benefits for military personnel and their families, as
well as critical contingency authorities needed to counter the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant and to respond to emerging needs in the face of evolving
terrorist threats and emergent crises worldwide.
Earlier this month, the Department of Defense transferred
the last remaining third-country nationals held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan,
ending U.S. detention operations in Afghanistan. Yet halfway around the world,
the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, remains open for the 13th
consecutive year, costing the American people hundreds of millions of dollars
each year and undermining America's standing in the world. As I have said many
times, the continued operation of this detention facility weakens our national
security by draining resources, damaging our relationships with key allies and
partners, and emboldening violent extremists. Closing the detention facility is
a national imperative.
I have repeatedly called upon the Congress to work with my
Administration to close the detention facility at Guantanamo once and for all.
Individuals from across the political spectrum have recognized that the
facility should be closed. But instead of removing unwarranted and burdensome
restrictions that curtail the executive branch's options for managing the
detainee population, this bill continues them. Section 1032 renews the bar
against using appropriated funds to construct or modify any facility in the
United States, its territories, or possessions to house any Guantanamo detainee
in the custody or under the control of the Department of Defense unless
authorized by the Congress. Section 1033 likewise renews the bar against using
appropriated funds to transfer Guantanamo detainees into the United States for
any purpose. The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015,
contains similar provisions as well as those relating to existing restrictions
on the transfer of detainees abroad. I have consistently opposed these
restrictions and will continue to work with the Congress to remove them. More
than 80 percent of detainees at one time held at the detention facility have
now been transferred. The executive branch must have the flexibility, with
regard to those detainees who remain, to determine when and where to prosecute
them, based on the facts and circumstances of each case and our national
security interests, and when and where to transfer them consistent with our
national security and our humane treatment policy. Under certain circumstances,
the provisions concerning detainee transfers in both bills would violate
constitutional separation of powers principles. In the event that the
restrictions on the transfer of detainees operate in a manner that violates
constitutional separation of powers principles, my Administration will
implement them in a manner that avoids the constitutional conflict.
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