I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1352 

To prohibit the return or other transfer of persons by the United States, 

for the purpose of detention, interrogation, trial, or otherwise, to countries where torture or other inhuman treatment of persons occurs, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 6, 2007 

Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. GEORGE MILLER

of California, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. 

BLUMENAUER, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mrs. DAVIS of California, Mr. 

GRIJALVA, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. HOLT, Mr. KUCINICH, Ms. LEE, Mr. 

LEWIS of Georgia, Mrs. MALONEY of New York, Ms. MCCOLLUM of Minnesota, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. PASTOR, Ms. 

SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. TIERNEY, Ms. WOOLSEY, Ms. BALDWIN, Mrs. CAPPS, 

Ms. DELAURO, Mr. FARR, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. 

MCNULTY, Mr. MEEHAN, Mr. MICHAUD, Mr. MORAN of Virginia, Mr. 

NADLER, Mr. OLVER, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. ROTHMAN, Mr. 

THOMPSON of California, Mr. UDALL of New Mexico, Ms. WATSON, Mr. 

MCDERMOTT, Mr. RUSH, Mr. HONDA, and Mr. SIRES) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To prohibit the return or other transfer of persons by the 

United States, for the purpose of detention, interrogation, trial, or otherwise, to countries where torture or 

other inhuman treatment of persons occurs, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Torture Outsourcing 

3 Prevention Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. TRANSFER OF PERSONS. 

5 (a) REPORTS TO CONGRESS.—Beginning 30 days 

6 after the date of the enactment of this Act and every 12 

7 months thereafter, the Secretary of State shall complete 

8 and submit to the appropriate congressional committees 

9 a list of countries where there are substantial grounds for 

10 believing that torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading 

11 treatment is commonly used in the detention or interroga12 tion of individuals. The list shall be compiled on the basis 

13 of the information contained in the most recent annual 

14 report of the Secretary of State submitted to the Speaker 

15 of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 

16 Foreign Relations of the Senate under section 116(d) of 

17 the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151n(d)). 

18 (b) PROHIBITION ON TRANSFERRING PERSONS.— 

19 Any person who is imprisoned, detained, or held for trans20 fer to another country by, or is otherwise in the custody 

21 or control of, a department, agency, or official of the 

22 United States Government, or any contractor of any such 

23 department or agency, may not, regardless of the nation24 ality or location of that person, be rendered, returned, or 

25 otherwise transferred— 


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1 (1) to a country included on the most recent list 

2 submitted under subsection (a), for the purpose of 

3 detention, interrogation, trial, or otherwise; or 

4 (2) to any other country if there are substantial 

5 grounds to believe that the person will be transferred 

6 to a country included in the most recent list sub7 mitted under subsection (a). 

8 (c) PROCESS.—A person may not, regardless of the 

9 nationality or location of the person, be rendered, re10 turned, or otherwise transferred by a department, agency, 

11 or official of the United States Government, or any con12 tractor of any such department or agency, to any country 

13 not otherwise described in paragraph (1) or (2) of sub14 section (b), unless the person has been given an oppor15 tunity to challenge the rendering, return, or transfer in 

16 a court in the United States of competent jurisdiction, on 

17 the grounds that the person would, upon such rendering, 

18 return, or transfer, be in danger of being subjected to tor19 ture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. 

20 (d) WAIVERS.— 

21 (1) AUTHORITY.—The Secretary of State may 

22 waive the prohibition contained in subsection (b) 

23 with respect to the government of a country if the 

24 Secretary certifies to the appropriate congressional 

25 committees that— 


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1 (A) that government has ended the acts of 

2 torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treat3 ment that were the basis for the inclusion of 

4 that country on the list; and 

5 (B) there is in place a mechanism that 

6 assures the United States in a verifiable man7 ner that a person rendered, returned, or other8 wise transferred will not be tortured or sub9 jected to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treat10 ment in that country, including, at a minimum, 

11 immediate, unfettered, and continuing access, 

12 from the point of return, to each such person 

13 by an independent humanitarian organization. 

14 (2) ASSURANCES INSUFFICIENT.—Written or 

15 verbal assurances made to the United States by the 

16 government of a country that persons rendered, re17 turned, or otherwise transferred to the country will 

18 not be tortured or subjected to cruel, inhuman, or 

19 degrading treatment, are not sufficient to meet the 

20 requirements of paragraph (1)(B). 

21 (e) TREATY-BASED EXTRADITION EXEMPTION.— 

22 (1) EXEMPTION.—The prohibition contained in 

23 subsection (b) shall not be construed to apply to the 

24 legal extradition of a person under a bilateral or 

25 multilateral extradition treaty if, prior to such extraVerDate Aug 31 2005 22:31 Mar 08, 2007 Jkt 059196 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1352.IH H1352

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1 dition, that person has recourse to a court in the 

2 United States of competent jurisdiction to challenge 

3 the extradition on the basis that there are substan4 tial grounds for believing that the person would be 

5 in danger of being subjected to torture or cruel, in6 human, or degrading treatment in the country re7 questing such extradition. 

8 (2) ASSURANCES INSUFFICIENT.—Written or 

9 verbal assurances made to the United States by the 

10 government of a country that persons rendered, re11 turned, or otherwise transferred to the country will 

12 not be tortured or subjected to cruel, inhuman, or 

13 degrading treatment, are not a sufficient basis for 

14 believing that the person would not be in subjected 

15 to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment 

16 in the country requesting such extradition pursuant 

17 to paragraph (1). 

18 SEC. 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF OBLIGATION NOT TO RE19 TURN TO RISK OF TORTURE. 

20 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 2242 of the Foreign Af21 fairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 (8 U.S.C. 

22 1231 note) is amended by striking subsection (b) and in23 serting the following: 

24 ‘‘(b) REGULATIONS.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) ISSUANCE.—Not later than 120 days after 

2 the date of the enactment of the Torture 

3 Outsourcing Prevention Act, the heads of the appro4 priate Government agencies shall prescribe regula5 tions to implement the obligations of the United 

6 States under Article 3 of the United Nations Con7 vention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman 

8 or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, subject to 

9 any reservations, understandings, declarations and 

10 provisos contained in the United States Senate reso11 lution of ratification of the Convention. 

12 ‘‘(2) REQUIREMENTS OF REGULATIONS.—Regu13 lations issued by the head of an agency under para14 graph (1) shall set forth— 

15 ‘‘(A) the responsibilities of the agency, its 

16 employees, and its contractors to comply, both 

17 within and outside of the United States, with 

18 the obligations of the United States under Arti19 cle 3 of the Convention Against Torture re20 ferred to in paragraph (1); and 

21 ‘‘(B) the process by which a person may 

22 raise and adjudicate in an independent judicial 

23 forum a claim that his or her transfer would be 

24 in violation of Article 3 of the Convention 

25 Against Torture referred to in paragraph (1), 


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1 including the process by which the individual 

2 being transferred can challenge any diplomatic 

3 or other assurances received from the govern4 ment to which the individual would be returned 

5 that the individual will not be subjected to tor6 ture or ill treatment. 

7 ‘‘(3) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this sub8 section, the term ‘appropriate Government agencies’ 

9 means the intelligence community (as defined in sec10 tion 3(4) of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 

11 U.S.C. 401a(4))), the Departments of State, De12 fense, Homeland Security, and Justice, the United 

13 States Secret Service, the United States Marshals 

14 Service, and any other law enforcement, national se15 curity, intelligence, or homeland security agency that 

16 imprisons, detains, or transfers prisoners or detain17 ees, or that otherwise takes or assumes custody of 

18 persons or transfers persons to another country.’’. 

19 (b) EXISTING REGULATIONS.— 

20 (1) IN GENERAL.—The amendment made by 

21 subsection (a) does not nullify any regulations issued 

22 by an agency, before the effective date of this Act, 

23 under section 2242(b) of the Foreign Affairs Reform 

24 and Restructuring Act of 1998. In such a case, the 

25 agency shall amend such regulations to comply with 


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1 the amendment made by subsection (a) of this sec2 tion. 

3 (2) SPECIAL RULE CONCERNING IMMIGRATION

4 LAWS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of this 

5 Act, or any amendment made by this Act, nothing 

6 in this Act shall be construed to affect immigration 

7 laws (as defined in section 101(a)(17) of the Immi8 gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 

9 1101(a)(17))), or regulations issued pursuant to im10 migration laws, except that the Secretary of Home11 land Security, not later than 120 days after the date 

12 of the enactment of this Act, shall revise the regula13 tions issued by the Secretary to implement section 

14 2242 of the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restruc15 turing Act of 1998 (8 U.S.C. 1231 note) so as to 

16 ensure that written or verbal assurances made by 

17 the government of a country that a person in immi18 gration proceedings in the United States (including 

19 asylum proceedings) will not be tortured or sub20 jected to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment if 

21 the person is removed by the United States to the 

22 country are not, standing alone, a sufficient basis 

23 for believing that the person would not be tortured 

24 or subjected to such treatment if the person were re25 moved to the country. 


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1 SEC. 4. SAVINGS CLAUSE. 

2 Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this 

3 Act shall be construed to eliminate, limit, or constrain in 

4 any way the rights that an individual has under the Con5 vention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or De6 grading Treatment or Punishment, or any other applicable 

7 law. 

8 SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

9 This Act takes effect on the date that is 30 days after 

10 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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