The Obama administration has all but officially abandoned a proposal to turn a vacant Illinois state prison into a facility for suspected terrorists now held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
But senior Republican lawmakers said that before they vote on a budget request to acquire and renovate the prison for ordinary federal inmates, they want a guarantee — in writing from the president — that the White House will not change its mind and later transfer terrorism suspects there.
“The money is not in our budget, and we will not put that money in our budget … because then they would move detainees up from Guantanamo Bay,” said Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that will consider the funding request next month.
Rich Carter, a spokesman for Republican Rep. Donald Manzullo of Illinois, whose district includes the Thomson Correctional Center, said both the federal Bureau of Prisons and northwestern Illinois would suffer if the White House failed to give such an assurance, thus forcing rejection of the funding.