Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time, and I thank him for his continued leadership on this issue. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of this amendment, which would remove a provision that prevents the Department of Defense from closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The continued use of this facility does not make our country safer and only serves to undermine our national security. Well respected military leaders and national security officials have said that Guantanamo remains a propaganda tool for terrorist groups that is used to incite violence against Americans. In 2015, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which is composed of 57 member states, including all NATO allies, concluded that Guantanamo serves as an obstacle to counterterrorism cooperation and that the facility should be closed. In addition, the cost of housing detainees and maintaining the facility continues to be a financial drain on the Department of Defense. According to Human Rights First, Guantanamo costs the U.S. approximately $445 million per year to operate. The average cost per detainee at Guantanamo is more than $10 million. At the same time, the cost per prisoner at the Federal supermax prison in Colorado, which houses such terrorists as 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef, and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is $78,000. Mr. Chairman, this should not be a partisan issue.…”