The White House already is considering using a special written pronouncement to reject congressional lawmakers’ attempts to limit President Barack Obama’s authority to transfer inmates from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The restrictions were included in a massive military spending bill approved by Congress late last month.

Language contained in the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act passed by the House and Senate bars the government from using public money to bring Guantanamo captives to federal court, a measure meant to limit trials to the Military Commissions in Cuba.

Included in the bill is language that also makes it virtually impossible to close the prison by building a substitute prison or relocating prisoners to the United States.

The budget prohibits the use of defense funding “to construct or modify a facility within the United States to house detainees transferred from the Guantanamo detention facility” or “to transfer, release or assist in the transfer or release of Guantanamo detainees to or within the United States.”

The president views Gitmo as a prime recruiting tool for Al-Qaeda, and his advisors suggest the president may issue an Executive Order declaring that Congress overstepped its powers by trying to pick prosecution venues.

Some supporters of plan Obama announced on his first full day in office to close the prison said the passage of the legislation signals near-complete capitulation by the president.

“Obama's original plan is in shambles,” David Remes, an attorney for 14 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo, told reporters. “From the outside it appears to be in shambles because he was never sufficiently committed to the success of his own plan and, as a result, Republicans were able to mobilize to turn the issue against him and he provided the Congressional Democrats no leadership.”

For about a year, senior National Security officials have struggled with the issue of whether to try alleged Sept. 11 plotters like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a military commission or a civilian court - and, if so, where. The new legislation seeks to short-circuit that process by leaving military commissions as the only trial option. Other new requirements in the legislation could slow or stop transfers from Guantanamo to other countries.

Just this Thursday, the Pentagon sent home from Guantanamo an Algerian captive who resisted repatriation.

The Pentagon sent Saed Farhi, 49, home as the White House is deciding what to do about Congress' tough new restrictions on the administration's effort to empty Guantanamo's prisons.

(Farhi’s lawyers asked that he be resettled elsewhere, like other Guantanamo captives, because he feared extremist violence in his native Algeria, and saying he also feared government retaliation for the stigma of having been held at Guantanamo, even though he had been cleared.)

There are still 174 detainees at Guantanamo, only three of whom have been formally tried and found guilty as the controversial prison camp starts its 10th year.

Although a recent Defense Intelligence Agency study on detainees found that 150 of the Gitmo prisoners released were confirmed or suspected of returning to terrorism.  President George W. Bush released more than 500 detainees from the prison.

In recent days Attorney General Eric Holder warned that the limits could violate the Constitution by intruding on the Executive Branch's right to make decisions about where prosecutions should be brought.

However, the White House has pointedly refused to say whether Obama's objection to the Gitmo provisions is so strong that he would veto the entire defense measure.

Recently, similar Guantanamo restrictions began appearing in versions of defense bills, omnibus budget legislation, and stopgap spending measures proposed by Democratic leaders. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois, said he was insisting on an airtight ban in order to be assured that an Illinois state prison the Obama Administration wanted to buy to house Guantanamo prisoners would only be used for ordinary convicts if the feds acquire it.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, one of Obama's most loyal allies on Guantanamo and detainee issues, said the restrictions were simply an acknowledgement of the lack of support in Congress for Obama's approach.

“On the Republican side, you have the politics of fear, and on the Democratic side you have a fear of politics,” Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch, told reporters.

The rise in the Republicans' strength makes it highly unlikely that the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba will close in 2011.

The new Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, Peter King, R-New York, is an outspoken supporter of Guantanamo. Republicans - and some Democrats - are deeply hostile to transferring detainees to the US. 

On Thursday, two senior Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee said any effort to have civilian trials would “defy the public will in furtherance of an unwise policy'” and “attack Congress’ fundamental constitutional authority to authorize funds.”

The new rules are in legislation that Obama has until Monday to sign.