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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > May > 07 > Entry
Austria introduces bill to bar Guantanamo detainees from Buckeye state
U.S. Rep. Steve Austria does not want former prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba sent to Ohio - and he’s introduced a bill to keep it from happening.
Austria, R-Beavercreek, introduced a bill Thursday, May 7, to keep enemy combatants currently housed at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from being transferred to prisons in Ohio. The bill also bars the use of federal dollars to build facilities in Ohio to house enemy combatants from Guantanamo.
Austria’s bill - cosponsored by U.S. Reps. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, Jim Jordan, R-Urbana and Pat Tiberi, R-Columbus - comes after a handful of lawmakers from other states, including Minnesota and California, introduced similar bills to keep Guantanamo prisoners from being sent to their state.
Austria said he and other members of Congress are worried that President Obama, who promised during the presidential campaign to close Guantanamo, hasn’t crafted a plan for where to send the approximately 245 detainees currently located there.
Obama earlier this year issued an executive order to close the Guantanamo detention center. On Monday, the House Appropriations Committee turned down Obama’s request for about $80 million to move prisoners from Guantanamo because he had yet to release a plan for where he intended to send them.
“I don’t believe Congress should approve the administration’s request for funds until they have a clear plan in place of how they’ll be relocated and where they’ll be relocated that ensures the safety of all Americans,” he said.
This bill is Austria’s first standalone bill since he came to Congress in January, although he has also attached an amendment supporting greater military pay raises to an earlier bill.
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Comments
By TRS
May 11, 2009 2:00 PM | Link to this
All you folks for bringing them into the country and see them as no threat - got an extra bedroom? I’m sure you could put them up. As it stands once they touch US soil, the ACLU and other such groups will file motion after motion, etc trying to get them into our Federal court systems, probably in the 9th Circuit where all the “empathic” justices are. In turn, we cannot use the evidence obtained in federal court because it is either classified or it the guy wasn’t read his Miranda rights and heaven forbid, those that killed thousands innocent Americans may have been waterboarded so no further innocent life would be lost - how horrible! The adminstration is now talking about taking them to Bagram AB which is simply a substitute for Gitmo or military tribunals, all of which candidate Obama opposes but now sees value. The whole Gitmo thing was pure politically motivated hyperbole. Now they need a Gitmo but have worked themselves into a hole where even Congress won’t allocate the money to close it down. All the easy, high minded and pontificating answers in the world advanced in the campaign are now coming home to roost except there is no roost.By nan
May 10, 2009 10:37 AM | Link to this
Now, Mr. Austria, when you run for re-election you can say you passed a bill in your freshman year! What a joke. Actually federal prisons mean Ohio jobs.By What can we expect
May 9, 2009 6:47 PM | Link to this
Another case of NIMBY. If they were all split between the states that would put approximately 5 per state. Take them and shut up. Gitmo was an embarassing chapter in the history of the USA. Please let us rectify what we can without making it lok worse by frivilous bills like this one. There are much more important items to be addressed. Jobs, education, healthcare - to name a few.By Rob
May 8, 2009 2:49 PM | Link to this
Every time Mr. Austria opens his mouth he lokks sillier and sillier. By the way, is there a problem with Ohio prison security he knows about that he’s not telling anybody else about? I mean, if they’re not good enough to hold a 15 year old Afghan cab driver whose only crime was driving by a armored column, what chance do they have against the Ohio native pedophiles, rapists, and murders who are housed there? What a tool!By ricko
May 8, 2009 9:15 AM | Link to this
His first standalone bill! Is this what Austria thinks is important to do, considering the problems facing people in Ohio and his district? This is simply grandstanding.By tallsandi
May 8, 2009 8:49 AM | Link to this
Thany You Thank You Thank YOU!!!!!!!!