White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the administration hoped to "short circuit" opposition from Republicans in Congress who have blocked Obama from closing the prison, one of his top goals, according to Reuters.
Republicans have barred transfers to America from the facility at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval base in Cuba. The administration has also faced resistance in the Pentagon to repatriating those still seen as a potential threat.
The prison has been the source of alleged abuses, including the waterboarding of prisoners under interrogation, and the White House says it is used as a propaganda tool for militant groups recruiting supporters to fight America.
It was set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks for al Qaeda and Taliban detainees. Obama vowed to close it within a year when he came to office in 2009.
"The administration is ... in the final stages of drafting a plan to safely, responsibly, the prison at Guantanamo and to present that plan to Congress," Earnest told a regular briefing.
There were two transfers of prisoners to their homeland or third countries this year that cut the total there from 127 to 116. Washington has ruled out sending 69 Yemenis home because of the chaotic security situation in their homeland.
As UNIAN reported earlier, U.S. President Barack Obama decided to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism in another move of rapprochement between the United States and the communist Caribbean island country.
