On the recordJune 22, 2016
The Presiding Officer is a member of the Committee on Armed Services who may very well remember when we passed a law, and that law said the President was not going to be able to release anyone from Gitmo until 30 days' notice is given to the Senate Committee on Armed Services. The President signed that bill and a matter of hours later released the Taliban Five. Everybody remembers the Taliban Five. They were the most egregious of all the terrorists who were in Gitmo. We don't know what they are doing now. Supposedly they are in Qatar or someplace under some supervision, but it happens that the recidivism rate of those who have been released from Gitmo is 30 percent. In other words, 30 percent of those released are back trying to kill Americans again. It is unacceptable, and it is very similar to this. Whether it is releasing people--terrorists from Gitmo--to go out and kill Americans or releasing people who are criminal aliens from our cities and towns, it is a problem, a serious problem, and we are going to have to address this problem, and we are going to address it. With that, I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
