Overnight Defense: GOP bill would block Gitmo’s return to Cuba

THE TOPLINE: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) introduced legislation on Thursday that prohibits President Obama from returning the Guantánamo Bay naval station back to Cuba without Congress’s permission.

“Congress specifically provided the president the authority to acquire Guantanamo Bay from Cuba, and Congress should have a role in any decision to relinquish it,” he said in a statement.

{mosads}The move comes amid growing Republican fears that the administration will seek to return the base, which houses the Guantánamo detention facility, back to Cuba during the president’s trip there later this month.

“The White House says our Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay is ‘sure’ to be a part of discussions. While giving the base to the Castro regime may not be a part of ‘this trip,’ as the White House insists, its long record of one-sided concessions and lack of transparency over Cuba policy makes me very concerned about the status of this key Naval Station,” he said. Read more here.

GITMO, ISIS MEASURES IN DEFENSE BILL? The House Armed Services Committee chairman is mulling measures on Guantánamo Bay and a strategy for defeating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the upcoming annual defense policy bill.

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) says Congress must act because President Obama didn’t provide lawmakers with a strategy for ISIS and his plan for closing the prison at Gitmo fell flat.

“I don’t know what specific actions will be on either front, but they are both issues that are not going to go away,” Thornberry told reporters Thursday.

Last year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) required Obama to submit a plan to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, which he did last week. But Republican lawmakers quickly dismissed the proposal.

Thornberry reiterated his stance that the plan didn’t meet the law’s requirements, saying it lacked answers to key questions, including what to do with any future detainees.

MCCAIN RIPS AIR FORCE LEADERS: Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) slammed Air Force leaders Thursday for wanting to retire the A-10 “Warthog” attack jet, despite its effectiveness in the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

“We have X amount of people and X amount of dollars,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh III told the committee at a hearing on the Air Force.

“And you have X amount of missions and the A-10 is carrying out those missions, general,” McCain responded.

The Air Force has been planning to retire the A-10, a close-air support platform, and eventually replace it with the F-35 when it becomes operational. In the meantime, the Air Force would use F-15s and F-16s, Welsh said.

But McCain responded that the A-10s are currently being used because they’re the best close air support platform — not F-15s or F-16s.

“You’re using the A-10 because it’s the most effective weapon system,” he said.

“You know general, I’ve had a little military experience myself including in close-air support, and for you to sit there and tell me that we could be using the F-16 and the F-15 when we’re not, and your plans are to use the F-35 at ten times the cost, eventually it flies in the face of not just my experience but the experienced pilots that I know, the U.S. Air Force pilots that I’m in constant communication with,” he said.

McCain ended the hearing with an indignant “This hearing is adjourned,” prompting Twitter chatter, including this tweet.

GOP DEFENSE ESTABLISHMENT REJECTS TRUMP: More than 70 Republicans from the defense establishment have signed an open letter refusing to support Donald Trump for president.

“As committed and loyal Republicans, we are unable to support a Party ticket with Mr. Trump at its head,” said the letter, posted Wednesday evening on the website War on the Rocks.

“We commit ourselves to working energetically to prevent the election of someone so utterly unfitted to the office,” it said.

Signatories included Eliot A. Cohen, a former senior State Department official who served in the George W. Bush administration, Bryan McGrath, managing director of the FerryBridge Group, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick and former Undersecretaries of Defense Dov Zakheim and Eric Edelman.

The signatories outlined clear core objections to Trump’s foreign policy views articulated thus far. Read the letter here.

ON TAP FOR TOMORROW:

The National Intelligence Council chairman will speak about the U.S. use of strategic intelligence at the Center for Strategic and International Studies at 10 a.m. at 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Visit csis.org for more.

ICYMI:

— The Hill: Rubio remotely helps block Mexico ambassador

— The Hill: Dems push Obama to back female UN leader

— The Hill: Bill targets Afghan sexual abuse claims

— The Hill: Report: Trump has donated less than half of $6M promised vets

— The Hill: Navy SEAL congressman pens book with ‘American Sniper’ author

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