SENATE Amended Final Rdg March 10, 2016Second Regular Session Seventieth General Assembly STATE OF COLORADO ENGROSSED LLS NO. R16-0958.01 Joel Moore x4497 SJR16-011 SENATE SPONSORSHIP Grantham, Cadman, Baumgardner, Cooke, Crowder, Hill, Holbert, Lambert, Lundberg, Marble, Martinez Humenik, Neville T., Roberts, Scheffel, Scott, Sonnenberg, Tate, Woods HOUSE SPONSORSHIP Wilson, Becker J., Brown, Buck, Carver, Conti, Coram, DelGrosso, Dore, Everett, Humphrey, Joshi, Klingenschmitt, Landgraf, Lawrence, Leonard, Lundeen, Navarro, Neville P., Nordberg, Priola, Rankin, Ransom, Roupe, Saine, Sias, Thurlow, Van Winkle, Willett, Windholz, Wist Senate Committees House Committees SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 16-011 Concerning discouraging the lease of the Centennial south campus of the Centennial Correctional Facility in Canon City to the federal government. WHEREAS, The United States Congress, by the enactment of laws on five separate occasions since 2010, has expressly prohibited the executive departments of the federal government from spending any funds for the transfer of detainees from the secure facility at the Guantanamo Naval Base to any facility located on the soil of the continental United States; and WHEREAS, In November 2015, Congress again prohibited any current fiscal year federal expenditure for the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners to any facility on United States soil by enactment of the FY 2015-2016 National Defense Authorization Act, specifically in Title X, Subsection D, Sections 1031-1034 of that act, by an overwhelming, veto-proof vote of 91-3 in the Senate and 370-58 in the House of Representatives, and the legislation was duly signed into law by President Obama on November 25, 2015; and WHEREAS, No court of law has challenged or negated the propriety, validity, or legality of this expressed prohibition enacted by Congress, an action which lies entirely within Congress' sole constitutional power over government expenditures; and WHEREAS, United States courts of law have affirmed that detainees are justifiably and legally confined to military prisons outside the continental United States; and WHEREAS, Americans and Coloradans are overwhelmingly opposed to the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo to any facility on U.S. soil out of justifiable concern for the safety of themselves and their loved ones; and WHEREAS, The majority of detainees remaining at the Guantanamo facility -- over 50 of the 91 individuals now in custody -- are persons deemed by competent authorities to be so dangerous that they cannot be released to the custody of any other nation; and WHEREAS, The presence of dozens of detainees imprisoned in facilities in Colorado may endanger the public safety of Colorado residents, public officials, penal institutions, and other persons by exposing them to lethal retaliation by international terrorist groups or by persons already within the United States who are sympathetic to the goals of the detainees; and WHEREAS, Any financial advantage accruing to the state from the sale or lease of a state property cannot be considered commensurate to the increased danger to public safety created by the transaction; and WHEREAS, In 2012, with the passage of House Bill 12-1337, the General Assembly closed the Centennial south campus of the Centennial Correctional Facility in Canon City, Colorado, and prohibited the use of the facility "for the purpose of housing inmates in the housing units", but encouraged the Executive Director of the Department of Corrections to "actively pursue options to sell or lease" the facility (section 17-1-104.3 (1) (b.5), Colorado Revised Statutes); and WHEREAS, In fiscal year 2016-2017, lease-purchase payments for the vacant facility will cost Colorado taxpayers $20,258,268; and WHEREAS, the Centennial south campus of the Centennial Correctional Facility is the only Colorado Department of Corrections facility now vacant and recent recommendations of the Prison Utilization Study have proposed realignment of the uses of this and other Department of Correction facilities; and WHEREAS, A large majority of Colorado's nine-member delegation in Congress, including members of both major political parties, voted for the most recent legislation prohibiting the expenditure of funds for the transfer of detainees from the Guantanamo facility to any facility on U.S. soil; and WHEREAS, It is both appropriate and timely for the people of Colorado to express concern and disapproval for acts of the federal government that defy the expressed will of Congress on a matter directly impacting the welfare of Colorado residents; and WHEREAS, While the Governor of the state of Colorado has the authority to sell or lease a state-owned property to the federal government for legitimate federal purposes, it is the sense of the Seventieth General Assembly that out of respect for the United States Constitution's cornerstone principles of federalism and the separation of powers, such executive authority ought not to be used for the sale or lease of state property for purposes explicitly declared illegal by act of Congress; now, therefore, Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Seventieth General Assembly of the State of Colorado, the House of Representatives concurring herein: That it would be improper and contrary to the public safety and best interests of the people of Colorado for the Governor to consent to any sale or lease of a state-owned property to the United States Department of Defense or any federal agency for a purpose expressly prohibited by federal law. Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Joint Resolution be sent to President Barack Obama; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell; Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter; Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper; the Colorado Congressional Delegation; and Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, Rick Raemisch.