**Credentialed media must RSVP to access press viewing area**

Washington, D.C. – Tomorrow at 9:30 a.m., House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) will convene a hearing entitled “The Administration’s Plan to Close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility: At What Foreign Policy and National Security Cost?”

Chairman Royce on the hearing:  “According to the Obama administration’s own figures, more than 30 percent of detainees released from the prison at Guantanamo Bay have returned to terrorist activities.  Those that remain are among the most hardened and highly trained terrorists in the world – and they are committed to killing Americans.  This hearing will allow members to question officials from Departments of State and Defense on the president’s plan to close the prison by bringing some of these terrorists to U.S. soil, and releasing others to countries that are ill-equipped to stop them from returning to the battlefield.”

What:
Hearing: The Administration’s Plan to Close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility: At What Foreign Policy and National Security Cost?

When:
9:30 a.m., Wednesday, March 23

Where:
2172 Rayburn House Office Building

Witnesses:
Mr. Lee Wolosky
Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure
U.S. Department of State

Mr. Paul M. Lewis
Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure
U.S. Department of Defense

**Important planning note/RSVP requirement for press covering hearing**

The hearing will be webcast at foreignaffairs.house.gov/live-video-feed.

The hearing room will likely not be able to accommodate all members of the media wishing to cover the hearing from the press viewing area.

Only Congressionally credentialed members of the media will be allowed access to the press viewing area in the committee hearing room and MUST RSVP to their respective Press Gallery by 5pm on Tuesday, March 22.

All television crews must RSVP to the House Radio TV Gallery at 202-225-5214.  Gallery contact information:

House Radio/TV Gallery:  202-225-5214
House Periodical Gallery:  202-225-2941
House Daily Press Gallery:  202-225-3945
Photographer Gallery:  202-224-6548

***See foreignaffairs.house.gov for updates.

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