Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express strong support for my bill, H.R. 5351, which would prohibit the transfer of any individual detained at Guantanamo Bay. Mr. Speaker, last night, the news broke that two more former GTMO detainees have rejoined militant groups. This is just the latest case of GTMO detainees being released, only to return to the fight. In fact, the President's own Director of National Intelligence reports 30 percent of former detainees are known or suspected to have reengaged in terrorist activities. Yet, the President continues to release more and more detainees. When President Obama came to office, there were 240 detainees at GTMO. The number is now down to 61, after the most recent and largest ever transfer last month. Another 20 have been cleared for transfer. When Hoosiers in my district hear these numbers, they worry that these transfers are leaving our Nation open to new vulnerabilities and will make Americans less safe. I could not agree more. While I wish we didn't have to stand here debating this bill, it is an unfortunate reality that our President remains willing to continue putting a misguided campaign promise ahead of the national security. Why else would detainees, who were once deemed too dangerous to transfer by President Obama's own GTMO task force, have been released to begin with? That is what happened with 8 of the detainees who were part of the largest-ever transfer of GTMO detainees last month.…”