109th Congress / House / 1st session / Vote 630
- Question: On Motion to Instruct Conferees
- Bill: H R 2863
- Vote description: Making Appropriations for the Department of Defense for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2006, and for Other Purposes
- Vote type: Yea-and-Nay (Help)
- Result: Passed, 308-122, with 3 not voting.
- Date/time: December 14, 2005, 6:49 p.m.
- Republican majority opinion: No (Help)
- Democrat majority opinion: Yes (Help)
Key Vote Analysis
With this vote House members showed their support for Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) effort to ban cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees held by U.S. forces and to require the military to follow the Army field manual for interrogations. Specifically, the vote was a motion to instruct the House members tasked with negotiating a final Defense Dept. spending bill with their Senate counterparts, to accept the McCain language. McCain -- a Vietnam War veteran, former prisoner of war and torture victim -- won wide support for the measure in both house of Congress.
The White House, resistant to any constraints on its ability to wage the war on terrorism, initially encouraged Republicans to fight the measure, and President Bush threatened a veto. However, following a brief public clash with McCain, who had support of a veto-proof majority in the House, the White House relented and threw its support behind the bill. In a small compromise McCain agreed to add two paragraphs giving civilian interrogators legal protections that were only previously extended to military interrogators. The president signed the bill into law on Dec. 30, 2005.
See other key votes in the 109th Congress
