House endorses ban on torture

WASHINGTON -- In a symbolic move, the House yesterday endorsed a Senate-passed ban on cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment of foreign terrorism suspects as negotiations between the White House and Senator John McCain over the provision appeared at an impasse.

Approved 308 to 122, the procedural vote puts political pressure on House negotiators -- but does not require them -- to include in a military spending bill the ban and another provision standardizing interrogation techniques used by US troops.

Both provisions are sponsored by the Arizona Republican. With both chambers of Congress controlled by the GOP, the House endorsement of the provisions further embarrasses the Bush administration, which months ago threatened to veto legislation containing either one.

The vote in the House followed a morning meeting between McCain and President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, in which the two sides failed to reach a compromise on the Arizona senator's provisions. ''We're still talking," McCain said yesterday afternoon. ''We'll get this resolved one way or another."

But progress on any compromise appeared stalled just hours later when the House GOP considered a nonbinding effort by Representative John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, to put the House on record supporting McCain's provisions.

''We cannot torture and still retain the moral high ground," said Murtha, the senior Democrat on the House appropriations defense panel. ''There can be no waiver to the use for torture. No torture and no exceptions."

Representative Bill Young, a Florida Republican who is chairman of that panel, said the United States does not torture but that it's ''important that we make it very clear that we are opposed to torture -- period." However, he said the provisions would give terrorists too many protections.

For months, House Republican leaders had delayed appointing negotiators for the defense spending bill in part to avoid a House vote on the McCain provisions. Leaders had been waiting for the result of negotiations between the White House and McCain.

Congressional aides cautioned that a vote did not signal a deal between the administration and the senator, and some aides said the two sides remained far apart.

Nevertheless, Young said: ''We hope that a reasonable agreement on this issue will be reached."

McCain's provisions have stalled two defense bills, including the $453 billion wartime spending measure. Congress is under pressure to approve the spending bill before adjourning for the year because it includes $50 billion for the Iraq war.

The administration fears the McCain provisions could limit the president's ability to stop a terrorist attack, and it has been seeking to add language that would offer some protection from prosecution for interrogators accused of violating the provision.