By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday denied President Barack Obama the $80 million (50.95 million pounds) he sought to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay and senators will soon decide whether to also drop his request for more aid for the International Monetary Fund.
The Senate voted 90-6 to strip the prison money from a $91.3 billion bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also barred the Obama administration from using any funds to bring the detainees held there to U.S. soil through September 30.
Bucking Obama, his fellow Democrats who control the Senate decided to dump the money after intense Republican criticism. That could make it potentially more difficult for the president to fulfil his promise to close the prison on the U.S. naval base in Cuba by January 2010.
Obama plans to address concerns about the facility and anti-terror policies in a speech on Thursday. Rights groups have criticized him for reversing plans to end military tribunals for detainees and release prison abuse photos.
There are some 240 terrorism suspects being held at Guantanamo and a number of lawmakers have opposed bringing them to U.S. prisons. Some Republicans have also urged Obama to keep the Guantanamo facility open.
Democrats and Republicans demanded Obama first detail plans for what to do with the detainees before they will permit using money to close the prison.
Senators also face another controversial request by Obama: to provide up to $108 billion for the IMF to help countries through the global financial crisis as well as authorise the U.S. representative to the IMF to support the institution's planned gold sale.
Republican Senator Jim DeMint plans to offer an amendment to drop the IMF provisions, including the funding and support for the IMF's plan to sell 400 tons of gold to raise more money for operations.
Obama, during the Group of 20 meeting last month, pledged $100 billion for a special IMF lending program for those suffering from the global downturn. He also asked Congress for about $8 billion to increase the U.S. contribution to the IMF.
"There is a bailout fatigue in our country and concern about spending," DeMint told Reuters. "When people realise we're borrowing another $100 billion probably from China in order to give it to an international fund so they can give it to other countries, I think people are going to be outraged."
DeMint said he did not know if he could win the vote. Because the IMF aid is essentially extending credit lines, congressional budget advisers have said lawmakers only needed to appropriate $5 billion in the legislation.
(Editing by Eric Beech)
