U.S. Senate passes bill that makes it harder to close Guantanamo Bay

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a sweeping defence policy bill on Tuesday that the White House said President Barack Obama will likely sign, despite provisions that make it more difficult to close the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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The Senate vote was 91-3 in favour of the measure, which authorizes more than $600 billion US in defence spending and includes $5 billion US in cuts not in an earlier version of the bill that Obama vetoed last month.

Obama, who has vowed to close the prison before leaving office in 2017, had said the Guantanamo language was one reason he vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act, known as the NDAA, last month.

Bill restricts transfers from Guantanamo

Obama's main reason in withholding approval, however, was a dispute over spending that he had with the Republicans who control Congress, which was then resolved in a two-year budget deal Obama signed into law last week.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there are too many important provisions in this defence bill for another veto.

"That certainly does not reflect a change in our position, or the intensity of our position, about the need to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay," Earnest told a news briefing.

Together with extending a ban on transferring Guantanamo detainees to the United States, the bill imposes new restrictions on transfers to third countries, including Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia.

Obama still promises to close Guantanamo

Even lawmakers who want to close the Guantanamo prison, such as Republican senator John McCain, have expressed frustration that Obama, who has been in office since 2009, has not yet sent Congress his plan for closing it.

Obama is expected to submit that plan this week. It will face stiff resistance, especially from Republicans in Congress, and there has been talk that he might resort to an executive order to close the prison.

That suggestion infuriates congressional Republicans, many of whom consider Guantanamo essential for the detention of suspected foreign militants. Obama and lawmakers who favour closing the prison, mostly his fellow Democrats, view it as a damaging symbol of abuse and detention without charge.

When asked on Tuesday about a possible executive order, Earnest said the White House's focus now is on getting Congress to consider its plan for Guantanamo.

The House passed the National Defense Authorization Act last week by 370-58. That margin, like the vote in the Senate, far exceeds the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.