President Barack Obama is running out of time to deliver on his promise to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay.

On Jan. 22, 2009, Obama issued an executive order calling for the closure of the prison facility at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba within one year. But Congress didn't agree with Obama's goal and banned the transfer of detainees to facilities within the United States.

Obama has, however, significantly reduced the number of detainees by 76 percent.

As of Dec. 10, 2016, the facility had 59 captives, including 21 approved for transfer or repatriation to their homelands, according to the Miami Herald, which has tracked prisoners and spending since the facility opened under President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Of the remaining captives, 10 are charged with war crimes and 29 are "forever prisoners," who are considered too dangerous to release but ineligible for war-crimes trial.

The New York Times reported on Dec. 4 based on anonymous sources that Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter recently gave a 30-day notice to Congress that eight cleared detainees would be transferred several weeks from now.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Dec. 5 that the administration was still working on arrangements to relocate the remaining prisoners eligible for transfer.

The White House has consistently argued for the facility's closure on the basis that it is expensive and is used for recruiting purposes by terrorist groups. The U.S. government spends about $445 million a year for detainee operations and staff, which is currently around 1,700 troops and civilians -- a cost that critics calculate as about $7.58 million a year per detainee.

"We continue to be strongly opposed to the politically motivated effort by the Congress to prevent and obstruct the successful closure of the prison," Earnest said.

Cully Stimson, who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs during Bush's administration, said Obama shares blame with his own party for failing to close Gitmo.

"President Obama failed to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay for one simple reason: He failed to spend the political capital necessary to do so in 2009/2010 when the Democrats were in the majority in the Senate and House," said Stimson, who is a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

While the Democrats were in charge of both chambers, Congress passed legislation requiring the administration to notify Congress of impending transfers and later barring Obama from spending money to bring detainees to the United States or from purchasing a stateside facility to hold Gitmo detainees, Stimson said.

Ken Gude, senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, said that Congress interfered in ways that it never did during the Bush administration to impose barriers to make it difficult for Obama to close Gitmo. But he says that the reduction in detainees under Obama is an achievement.

When Obama first took office in 2009, there were 242 detainees at the facility. Under Obama's administration, 179 detainees have been moved to 42 countries for repatriation, resettlement, or prosecution. (The Bush administration released about 540.)

"They have moved out just about all the detainees you can conceive of being transferred out of U.S. custody," he said. "It seems unlikely that number will increase substantially."

University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck, a former Guantánamo defense lawyer, said Obama can claim victory on another front of this promise: Not a single detainee was sent to Guantánamo during Obama's tenure.

"It is still true that failing to close Guantánamo will go down as one of the most visible unfulfilled promises of the Obama years, and it is worth holding the president to task for that failure," he said. "But we ought not to allow that failure to obscure the important steps forward that we've taken at the same time — steps that may well be reversed by President Obama's successor."

Republican President-elect Donald Trump criticized Obama's approach and campaigned on a promise to keep Gitmo open. In February, Trump vowed to "load it up with some bad dudes" but operate it at a "tiny, tiny" fraction of the current cost.

"Maybe in our deal with Cuba, we get them to take it over and reimburse us," Trump has said.

Obama has not delivered on his promise to close Guantánamo Bay. We rate this Promise Broken.