A new bill to pay for ongoing efforts Iraq and Afghanistan has one notable omission: $50 million that the administration requested in order to pay for the planned closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
House Democrats announced the bill on Monday; overall, it provides for roughly $10 billion more in funding than President Obama had proposed. But that $50 million is nowhere to be found.
The most likely explanation for the omission is a political one. As the Associated Press notes, the money could potentially be diverted from other funds later on. Keeping it out of this bill means that in 2010 vulnerable Democrats won't be faced with GOP ads attacking them for having voted to close Guantanamo.
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