I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1029
To authorize the President to detain an enemy combatant who is a United 
States person or resident who is a member of al Qaeda or knowingly 
cooperated with members of al Qaeda, to guarantee timely access to 
judicial review to challenge the basis for a detention, to permit the 
detainee access to counsel, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 27, 2003
Mr. SCHIFF (for himself, Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts, Mr. SANDERS, and 
Mr. MCDERMOTT) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Armed 
Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To authorize the President to detain an enemy combatant 
who is a United States person or resident who is a 
member of al Qaeda or knowingly cooperated with mem-
bers of al Qaeda, to guarantee timely access to judicial 
review to challenge the basis for a detention, to permit 
the detainee access to counsel, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Detention of Enemy 
Combatants Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) The al Qaeda terrorist organization and its 
leaders have committed unlawful attacks against the 
United States, including the August 7, 1998, bomb-
ings of the United States Embassies in Nairobi, 
Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the October 
12, 2000, attack on the U.S.S. COLE (DDG–67), 
and the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United 
States. 
(2) The al Qaeda terrorist organization and its 
leaders have threatened renewed attacks on the 
United States and have threatened the use of weap-
ons of mass destruction. 
(3) The United Nations Security Council, in 
Resolutions 1368 and 1373, declared in September 
2001 that the September 11 attacks against the 
United States constitute a threat to international 
peace and security. 
(4) The United States is justified in exercising 
its right of self-defense pursuant to international law 
and the United Nations Charter.
(5) Congress authorized the President on Sep-
tember 18, 2001, to use all necessary and appro-
priate force against those nations, organizations, or 
persons that he determines to have planned, author-
ized, committed, or aided the September 11 terrorist 
attacks or harbored such organizations or persons, 
in order to prevent any future acts of international 
terrorism against the United States, within the 
meaning of section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolu-
tion. 
(6) The United States and its allies are en-
gaged in armed conflict with al Qaeda. 
(7) Al Qaeda and its terrorist allies have a 
presence in more than 60 nations around the world, 
including the United States. United States citizens 
and residents have been detained as enemy combat-
ants in the struggle against al Qaeda. 
(8) The term ‘‘enemy combatant’’ has histori-
cally referred to all of the citizens of a state with 
which the Nation is at war, and who are members 
of the armed force of that enemy state. Enemy com-
batants in the present conflict, however, come from 
many nations, wear no uniforms, and use unconven-
tional weapons. Enemy combatants in the war on 
terrorism are not defined by simple, readily apparent
criteria, such as citizenship or military uniform. And 
the power to name a citizen as an ‘‘enemy combat-
ant’’ is therefore extraordinarily broad. 
(9) There is precedent for detaining American 
citizens as enemy combatants. In Ex Parte Quirin, 
317 U.S. 1 (1942), 2 of the 8 German soldiers who 
planned acts of sabotage within the United States 
claimed American citizenship. Detention of enemy 
combatants who are United States citizens is appro-
priate to protect the safety of the public and those 
involved in the investigation and prosecution of ter-
rorism, to facilitate the use of classified information 
as evidence without compromising intelligence or 
military efforts, to gather unimpeded vital informa-
tion from the detainee, and otherwise to protect na-
tional security interests. 
(10) The Executive must be allowed broad lati-
tude to establish by regulation and Executive order 
the process, standards, and conditions in which a 
United States citizen or lawful resident may be de-
tained as an enemy combatant. Courts must give 
broad deference to military judgment concerning the 
determination of enemy combatant status, POW sta-
tus, and related questions.
(11) Section 4001(a) of title 18, United States 
Code, provides that ‘‘no citizen shall be imprisoned 
or otherwise detained by the United States except 
pursuant to an Act of Congress’’. Section 4001 was 
designed to repeal the Emergency Detention Act of 
1950, and ensure that there was a statutory basis 
for any detention. As Chief Justice Burger wrote in 
Howe v. Smith, 452 U.S. 473 (1981), ‘‘the plain 
language of section 4001(a) proscribes detention of 
any kind by the United States, absent a congres-
sional grant of authority to detain’’. 
(12) By this Act, the Congress authorizes the 
President to detain enemy combatants who are 
United States persons or residents who are members 
of al Qaeda, or knowingly cooperated with members 
of al Qaeda in the planning, authorizing, commit-
ting, aiding, or abetting of one or more terrorist acts 
against the United States. 
(13) During wartime, a nation must take ex-
traordinary steps to protect itself, including meas-
ures that would never be acceptable during peace-
time. Nonetheless, ‘‘the Constitution of the United 
States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war 
and in peace, and covers with the shield of its pro-
tection all classes of men, at all times, and under all 
circumstances.’’ Ex Parte Milligan. 
(14) Nothing in this Act permits the Govern-
ment, even in wartime, to detain American citizens 
or other persons lawfully in the United States as 
enemy combatants indefinitely without charges and 
hold them incommunicado without a hearing and 
without access to counsel on the basis of a unilateral 
determination that the person may be connected 
with an organization that intends harm to the 
United States. The Supreme Court has held that 
even enemy aliens within the United States are enti-
tled to habeas review of their conviction. Ex Parte 
Quirin, 317 U.S. 1 (1942); Johnson v. Eisentrager, 
339 U.S. 763 (1950). 
(15) The validity of the detention of citizens as 
enemy combatants may be challenged by a writ of 
habeas corpus. As the right of habeas corpus may be 
effectively nullified by denial of the assistance of 
counsel, a citizen detained as an enemy combatant 
may not be indefinitely denied access to counsel. 
(16) The Congress has a responsibility for 
maintaining vigorous oversight of detention of 
United States citizens and lawful residents to assure 
that such detentions are consistent with due process.
SEC. 3. DETENTION OF ENEMY COMBATANTS. 
(a) AUTHORITY.—A United States person or resident 
may be detained as an enemy combatant in accordance 
with this Act if the United States person or resident is 
a member of al Qaeda, or knowingly cooperated with a 
member of al Qaeda in the planning, authorizing, commit-
ting, aiding, or abetting of one or more terrorist acts 
against the United States. Nothing in this Act shall apply 
to a United States person or resident who is a prisoner 
of war within the meaning of the Geneva Convention Rel-
ative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, signed at Ge-
neva on August 12, 1949 (6 UST 3316). 
(b) 
AUTHORITY
TO
ESTABLISH
PROCEDURAL 
RULES.—The Secretary of Defense, in consultation with 
the Secretary of State and the Attorney General, shall pre-
scribe and publish in the Federal Register, and report to 
the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and the 
House of Representatives, the standards, process, and cri-
teria to be used for the determination that an American 
citizen or lawful resident is an enemy combatant under 
subsection (a) and for the detention of such an enemy 
combatant. 
SEC. 4. PROCEDURAL REQUIREMENTS. 
The rules prescribed for the detention of enemy com-
batants shall establish clear standards and procedures 
governing detention of a United States person or resident
that preserve the Government’s ability to detain those who 
may threaten the United States, assist in the gathering 
of vital intelligence, and protect the confidentiality of that 
information or any other information which, if released, 
could impede the Government’s investigation of terrorism. 
Such rules shall also guarantee timely access to judicial 
review to challenge the basis for a detention, and permit 
the detainee access to counsel. 
SEC. 5. DETENTION. 
(a) DURATION OF DETENTION.—
(1) LIMITATION.—A United States person or 
resident may be detained under subsection (a) of 
section 3 only while there is in effect for the pur-
poses of this section a certification by the President 
that—
(A) the United States Armed Forces are 
engaged in a state of armed conflict with al 
Qaeda and an investigation with a view toward 
prosecution, a prosecution, or a post-trial pro-
ceeding in the case of such person or resident 
is ongoing; or 
(B) detention is warranted in order to pre-
vent such person or resident from aiding per-
sons attempting to commit terrorist acts 
against the United States.
(2) CERTIFICATION AND RECERTIFICATION.—A 
certification referred to in paragraph (1) shall be ef-
fective for 180 days. The President may make suc-
cessive certifications under that paragraph. 
(b) DETENTION REVIEW.—The United States Dis-
trict Court for the District of Columbia shall have exclu-
sive jurisdiction to review any detention under this Act 
to ensure that the requirements of this Act for detaining 
an accused are satisfied. 
(c) CONDITIONS OF DETENTION.—A person detained 
under this Act shall be—
(1) detained at an appropriate location des-
ignated by the Secretary of Defense; 
(2) treated humanely, without any adverse dis-
tinction based on race, color, religion, gender, birth, 
wealth, or any similar criteria; 
(3) afforded adequate food, drinking water, 
shelter, clothing, and medical treatment; 
(4) sheltered under hygienic conditions and pro-
vided necessary means of personal hygiene; and 
(5) allowed the free exercise of religion con-
sistent with the requirements of such detention. 
SEC. 6. REPORTS TO CONGRESS. 
Not less often than once every 12 months, the Presi-
dent shall submit to the Congress a report on the use of
the authority provided by this Act. Each such report shall 
specify each individual subject to, or detained pursuant 
to, the authority provided by this Act. 
SEC. 7. UNITED STATES PERSON OR RESIDENT DEFINED. 
In this Act, the term ‘‘United States person or resi-
dent’’ means—
(1) a United States person, as such term is de-
fined in section 101(i) of the Foreign Intelligence 
Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1801(i)); or 
(2) an alien lawfully admitted to the United 
States for permanent residence. 
SEC. 8. TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY. 
The authority under this Act may not be exercised 
after December 31, 2005.
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