109th Congress / House / 2nd session / Vote 508
- Question: On Passage
- Bill: S 3930
- Vote description: Military Commissions Act
- Vote type: Yea-and-Nay (Help)
- Result: Passed, 250-170, with 12 not voting.
- Date/time: September 29, 2006, 2:47 p.m.
- Republican majority opinion: Yes (Help)
- Democrat majority opinion: No (Help)
Key Vote Analysis
This bill would outlaw certain actions during interrogations by U.S. personnel, including torture, rape, biological experimentation, and “mutilation or maiming,” but would leave it up to the president to define what interrogation techniques outside those barred by the Geneva Conventions is still permissible. It also would authorize the creation of military tribunals and legally immunize CIA officers who may have engaged in activity characterized as torture. The bill goes on to bar non-American citizens from protesting their imprisonment if the president designates them as “enemy combatants.”
Supporters say the legislation’s passage was a coup for the Bush administration and GOP because it helps boost their image as being tough on terrorists. Critics of the bill say it “dismantles a basic American freedom by denying detainees access to the courts” and is morally wrong. Despite those misgivings, many congressional Democrats reportedly voted for the bill to avoid being portrayed as soft on terror suspects.
The bill is in part a response to a Supreme Court decision to strike down Bush administration-established military commissions. The high court said the commissions outlined by Bush in a military order on Nov. 13, 2001, were not authorized under federal law and skirted the rules set out by the Geneva Conventions, a treaty the United States has committed to follow.
The president initially wanted a bill that would narrow U.S. obligations under the conventions and allow the CIA “to continue its special interrogation program of top terror suspects, which reportedly has included harsh techniques such as simulated drowning, forced hypothermia, and sleep and food deprivation,” according to The Washington Post. Resistance from three GOP senators, including John McCain (R-Ariz.) forced the administration to compromise.
The Senate passed the bill 65 to 34 on Sept. 28, after successfully fending off an attempt by Democrats to amend bill to allow foreigners designated as enemy combatants to challenge their captivity by filing habeas corpus appeals with the federal courts. House lawmakers passed the bill 250 to 170 on Sept. 28 with support from 32 Democrats and all but seven Republicans.
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