Of the six detainees President José Mujica of Uruguay has offered to resettle, four are Syrian, one is Palestinian and one is Tunisian. On June 26, lawyers for the six sent a letter to the administration urging it to act quickly while there was a window of opportunity, arguing that “these men should not be used as scapegoats in the current bout of U.S. partisan politics.” The administration is said to have notified Congress on July 9 that Mr. Hagel had approved the deal.

Lt. Col. Myles Caggins III, a Pentagon spokesman, said he was limited in what he could say for security reasons, but added, “Although we will not discuss certain aspects of our communications with Congress, we continue to move forward in transferring Guantánamo detainees and will continue to comply with the law in notifying Congress 30 days in advance of any transfer.”

If the transfer takes place in early August, a consequence could be the dismissal, without a ruling on the merits, of a lawsuit brought by one of the men, Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, challenging the military’s procedures for force-feeding detainees who have been on a long-term hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention without trial.

Mr. Diyab was arrested by the Pakistani police in a raid on a guesthouse in April 2002 and brought to Guantánamo in August 2002. On May 16, Judge Gladys Kessler of United States District Court for the District of Columbia barred the military from force-feeding Mr. Diyab, but she lifted the order a week later as his health deteriorated — even as she publicly rebuked the military for using procedures that she said caused unnecessary “agony.” His legal team has made a motion to depose military officials and gather documents about the details of the force-feeding practices.

The procedure involves strapping a detainee into a restraint chair and inserting a gastric tube through the nose and down the throat, through which liquid nutritional supplement is poured into the stomach. A group of news organizations, including The New York Times, has asked Judge Kessler to unseal and make public videotapes of Mr. Diyab undergoing the procedure.

Last Thursday, the day after the notice is said to have gone to Congress, the Justice Department made a sealed filing in the case. On Tuesday, Judge Kessler issued a sealed order, suggesting that the proceedings may have been paused in light of the potential for Mr. Diyab’s imminent release.