Significantly, the bill would require the U.S. to allow a person subject to return based on assurances an opportunity to challenge the reliability of assurances in an independent judicial forum.125 The bill would thus address the glaring absence of procedural guarantees to effectively challenge diplomatic assurances secured by the U.S. in its efforts to effect returns based on them. On March 16, 2005, Rep. Markey proposed an amendment to a supplemental appropriations bill that prohibited any of the funds made available by the act to be used for any activities that would contravene the U.S.’s obligations under the Convention against Torture.126 In his statement introducing the amendment, Markey directly referenced the U.S. renditions program and said: The Administration maintains that it is in full compliance with the Convention against Torture. Compliance, they say, is guaranteed by the dubious practice of asking countries known to torture prisoners for “promises” that they will not torture our prisoners. These so-called “diplomatic assurances” then provide the cover for sending a suspect to that country to undergo interrogation. . . “[D]iplomatic assurances” not to torture are not credible, and the Administration knows it.”127 The amendment passed in the House of Representatives by an overwhelming majority of 420 to 2, and was an important first step in addressing the U.S. practice of handing people over to governments that torture.128 125 Ibid., pp. 12-13: The bill would require all U.S. agencies to promulgate regulations regarding “the process by which a person may raise and adjudicate in an independent judicial forum a claim that his or her transfer would be in violation of article 3 of the [Convention against Torture]…including the process by which the individual being transferred can challenge any diplomatic assurances received from the government to which the individual would be returned that the individual would not be subjected to torture or ill-treatment.” 126 Amendment to H.R. 1268, as Reported, Offered by Mr. Markey of Massachusetts, F:\M9\MARKEY_033.XML, March 15, 2005. 127 Statement by Representative Edward J. Markey on Amendment to Stop Funds for the Outsourcing of Torture, March 15, 2005 [online] http://www.house.gov/markey/Issues/iss_human_rights_st050315.pdf (retrieved March 19, 2005). 128 See, Human Rights Watch Statement by Wendy Patten, U.S. Advocacy Director, at the March 10, 2005 “Rally to Stop Renditions” convened by Rep. Markey [online] http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/03/10/usint10294.htm (retrieved March 19, 2005). Human Rights Watch stated, “[W]e support efforts by the Congress, led by Rep. Markey in the House of Representatives, to put a stop to renditions to torture and, as part of that vital effort, to prevent the Bush administration from papering over its illegal conduct with diplomatic assurances from governments that torture." 43 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17 NO. 4(D)