(CNN) The Obama administration is in the "final stages of drafting a plan to safely and responsibly" close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday.

"That has been something that our national security officials have been working on for quite some time," Earnest said.

Earnest was responding to a question about a story in The New York Times that says the effort to close the prison, one of the first promises the president made back in 2009 upon taking office, was faltering and "collapsing again."

Any plan would have to be approved by Congress, which has placed significant obstacles in the way of transferring detainees out of the prison.

Currently a ban exists on moving detainees into the United States, a significant impediment to emptying the prison of the 116 alleged terrorists currently housed there.

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