Attorney General Eric Holder has asked the Senate to reject the provision in the funding bill passed by the House banning federal criminal trials of Guantanamo inmates in the U.S.

In a letter to Senate leaders, Holder called the provision "an extreme and risky encroachment on the authority of the Executive Branch." There was no immediate indication from the White House whether President Barack Obama finds the Gitmo-related limit so objectionable that he would veto the continuing resolution funding the government through September.

"This provision goes well beyond existing law and would unwisely restrict the ability of the Executive Branch to prosecute alleged terrorists in Federal courts or military commissions in the United States as well as its ability to incarcerate those convicted in those tribunals," Holder said in the letter, sent Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).  "In order to protect the American people as effectively as possible, we must be in a position to use every lawful instrument of national power to ensure that terrorists are brought to justice and can no longer threaten American lives."