I 
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. CON-
YERS, Mr. HOYER, Mr. DICKS, and Mrs. TAUSCHER) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and 
in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subse-
quently 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 Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Interrogation Proce-
dures Act of 2005’’.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRAD-
ING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT OF PER-
SONS 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 Govern-
ment, 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 ap-
plicability of the prohibition against cruel, inhuman, or de-
grading treatment or punishment under this section. 
(c) LIMITATION ON SUPERSEDURE.—The provisions 
of this section shall not be superseded, except by a provi-
sion 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 Four-
teenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United 
States, as defined in the United States Reservations, Dec-
larations and Understandings to the United Nations Con-
vention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhu-
man 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. 
Æ