McCain Amendment No. 1977

Defense Appropriations Act of 2006; Amendment 1977

From the 2005 Congressional Record; October 5, 2005, Page S11061

Amendment 1977 Cosponsors

 * Senator John McCain (R-Arizona)
 * Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina)
 * Senator Chuck Hagel (R -Indiana)
 * Senator Gordon Smith (R-Oregon)
 * Senator Susan M. Collins (R-Maine)
 * Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee)
 * Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-Illinois)
 * Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-Rhode Island)
 * Senator John E. Sununu (R - New Hampshire)
 * Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan)
 * Senator John W. Warner (R-Virginia)
 * Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colorado)

The amendment text
(Purpose: Relating to persons under the detention, custody, or control of the United States Government)


 * At the appropriate place, insert the following:


 * SEC. __. UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR THE INTERROGATION OF PERSONS UNDER THE DETENTION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.


 * (a) In General.--No person in the custody or under the effective control of the Department of Defense or under detention in a Department of Defense facility shall be subject to any treatment or technique of interrogation not authorized by and listed in the United States Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation.


 * (b) Applicability.--Subsection (a) shall not apply to with respect to any person in the custody or under the effective control of the Department of Defense pursuant to a criminal law or immigration law of the United States.


 * (c) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the rights under the United States Constitution of any person in the custody or under the physical jurisdiction of the United States.


 * SEC. __. PROHIBITION ON CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT OF PERSONS UNDER CUSTODY OR CONTROL OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.


 * (a) In General.--No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.


 * (b) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be construed to impose any geographical limitation on the applicability of the prohibition against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment under this section.


 * (c) Limitation on Supersedure.--The provisions of this section shall not be superseded, except by a provision of law enacted after the date of the enactment of this Act which specifically repeals, modifies, or supersedes the provisions of this section.


 * (d) Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Defined.--In this section, the term "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" means the cruel, unusual, and inhumane treatment or punishment prohibited by the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as defined in the United States Reservations, Declarations and Understandings to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment done at New York, December 10, 1984.

Roll Call Vote Result
The Senate voted on the Amendment October 5, 2005, and the result was--yeas 90, nays 9, as follows:

SourceWatch Resources

 * Geneva Conventions

Presidential Response
The October 6, 2005, Washington Post reported that "'the Senate defied the White House yesterday and voted to set new limits on interrogating detainees in Iraq and elsewhere,' with 46 Republicans joining the Democrats to pass restrictions on prisoner abuse so unacceptable to President Bush that he has threatened his first veto."