Money Doubtful For GITMO NORTH

Government By Katherine Skiba, Tribune reporter

February 2, 2010


— As Obama administration officials discussed a possible mid-2011 opening of Thomson prison as a federal facility, a key Democratic lawmaker said Tuesday that the president would have a fight on his hands to secure funding for the prison, which would house terrorism suspects.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., spoke in answer to a reporter's question on whether Obama would have a "steep, uphill fight" to get the millions needed to buy the Illinois prison and move Guantanamo Bay detainees there.

Hoyer said yes.

"I think the administration realizes that this is a difficult issue, and I think that they are assessing where they are and where they think we ought to be," Hoyer said. "And I think that's appropriate, and I look forward to discussing it with them."

He ranks second in House leadership behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California

A White House spokesman said later Tuesday that it was not reassessing the Guantanamo detainees' transfers to Illinois. "No, we're not reconsidering," spokesman Matthew Lehrich said.

Stephanie Lundberg, a spokeswoman for Hoyer, later sought to clarify his remarks. She said Hoyer "did not say the administration is rethinking moving detainees to the Thomson correctional facility, he said the administration is looking at how to achieve that goal, as is appropriate."

The administration's recent retreat on holding terror trials in New York City has led some to think that other aspects of the administration's terrorism policy will be revised. House Republicans from Illinois are unified in opposition to housing the detainees in Thomson. Democratic U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, of Illinois, is against the proposal too.

President Barack Obama on Monday submitted a budget proposal to Congress asking for $237 million for the largely vacant prison in northwestern Illinois. Some terrorism suspects from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be housed there as would Bureau of Prisons inmates, administration officials have said.

If Congress approved the money by Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year, the prison would probably take its first inmate "in the end of the first half" of 2011, an assistant attorney general, Lee Lofthus, told reporters Monday.

Justice Department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said Tuesday that it has not been announced which category of inmate would be accepted at the prison first.