NATIONAL BRIEFING / WASHINGTON, D.C.
House Democrats repelled a Republican effort to block transfer of the Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States, handing President Obama a partial victory in his effort to close the military prison.
Instead, by a 224-193 vote, the House stood by a Democratic plan to allow suspected enemy combatants held at the facility in Cuba to be moved to U.S. soil, but only to be prosecuted on criminal charges.
The Guantanamo restrictions were attached by House-Senate negotiators to a $42.8-billion Homeland Security appropriations bill. The measure subsequently passed by a 307-114 vote. It next goes to the Senate for a final vote that could come as early as next week.
Obama has ordered the facility closed in January but has yet to offer a plan to meet his deadline.
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