[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3985 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3985

  To provide standards for the treatment of persons under custody or 
    control of the United States Government, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 6, 2005

   Ms. Harman (for herself, Mr. Shays, Mr. Skelton, Mr. Castle, Mr. 
   Conyers, Mr. Hoyer, Mr. Dicks, and Mrs. Tauscher) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, 
 and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
  of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
                               concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide standards for the treatment of persons under custody or 
    control of the United States Government, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Interrogation Procedures Act of 
2005''.

SEC. 2. 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shall not be superseded, except by a provision of law enacted after the 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.

SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES.

    (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 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.
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