President Obama is in the final stages of drafting a plan to close Guantanamo Bay, confirmed White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest to reporters this afternoon.
Obama plans to present the plan to Congress in the coming days, Earnest added, calling it a priority for Obama as he prepares to leave office.
Earnest lectured that Republican members of Congress who block efforts to close the prison were on the wrong side of the debate, arguing that “closing the prison is actually in the national security interests of the United States.”
The New York Times reported that Secretary of Defense Ash Carter was given a National Security Council memo last week detailing a faster process of transferring detainees from the prison.
Earnest added that there were a “range of challenges” facing the president as he made a final policy push on the issue.
He argued that any of the detainees who were not able to be transferred needed “individualized disposition options” so that the prison could be effectively closed.