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WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate passed an annual defense bill that adds fresh restrictions to the transfer of detainees out of Guantanamo Bay. Senators voted 91-3 on Tuesday to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, a $607 billion package that lays out U.S. defense policy.
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Last week, the House voted 370-58 in favor of the measure, which is now being sent to President Barack Obama's desk for a second time.
Obama vetoed the previous NDAA partly over a disagreement about nearly $40 billion in extra war funding, but lawmakers agreed to a two-year budget deal in late October that increased defense and non-defense spending.
The Hill reported the new NDAA would extend a one-year wait period for detainees in Guantanamo Bay to be moved to the United States and would outlaw their transfer to Yemen, Somalia, Libya or Syria, each of which is facing violence from active Islamist extremist groups.
The passage comes as Obama is expected to present to Congress a plan to close Guantanamo Bay in part by moving its 112 detainees to facilities on American shores. Since 2008, the president has called for closure of the prison, which he characterized as a national security threat.
However, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who also backs closing the facility, said he did not think Obama would veto the new bill due to the restrictions.
"I expect he will not have a specific plan and it won't be satisfactory," The Wall Street Journal quoted McCain as saying.
Obama called the Guantanamo provisions "counterproductive" but did not say he would use his veto pen. The president has in past years threatened to veto the NDAA over such restrictions but eventually signed off on each on the bills.
"We look forward to the Senate passing this essentially unchanged legislation and the president signing the bipartisan bill -- along with its restrictions against bringing terrorists into the United States -- into law," The Hill quoted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as saying.
