President Barack Obama is again making progress in his effort to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
 
The House of Representatives voted Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009, to allow some prisoners there to be temporarily transferred to the United States for prosecution.
 
Promise No. 177 made its first appearance on the Obameter on Jan. 21, 2009, the day after Obama was sworn into office. The new president had just directed prosecutors to suspend legal proceedings against the suspected terrorists held at the facility. A day later, the administration issued an executive order to review the disposition of the prisoners and ordered that the facility be shut down within a year.
 
But by May, Obama's plans had begun to unravel. Congressional Republicans and Democrats said Obama needed to detail what he would do with the approximately 240 detainees held at the prison.

"The president, unwisely, in my view, announced an arbitrary timeline for closing Guantanamo of next January without a plan to deal with the terrorists who are incarcerated down there," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell at the time.
 
The opposition culminated in a May 20 vote, when the Senate voted to strip $80 million meant to shutter the facility from a war spending bill. House Democrats had already refused to include the funding in their version of the legislation.

Without support in Congress, Obama's plan to close down Guantanamo Bay had clearly reached a roadblock, so we decided to move Obama's promise from In the Works to Stalled.
 
Now, nearly five months later — with his one-year deadline looming — Democrats have changed their tune. In the Homeland Security Department funding bill is a provision that would allow detainees to temporarily be transferred to U.S. soil for prosecution. Nevertheless, members of Congress still want the White House to come up with a plan for the future of the detainees and the facility. And the legislation is expected to face opposition in the Senate.
 
But given these latest developments in the Guantanamo Bay debate, we're going to move this promise back to In the Works. We'll be watching the issue closely to see whether the rating holds.