WASHINGTON — The House yesterday passed a national intelligence policy bill that would ban the use of harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, setting up a Senate vote next week and a possible veto confrontation with President Bush.

The bill, largely classified, sets policy and budget limitations for U.S. intelligence agencies for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. It passed on a 222-to-199 vote.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., praised the action, calling it “vital” that all U.S. agencies follow the same set of rules to ensure that prisoner interrogations are “lawful, likely to produce reliable intelligence, and reflective of our nation’s values.”

The Bush administration swiftly threatened a veto, saying that the bill would prevent “lawful interrogations of senior al-Qaeda terrorists to obtain intelligence needed to protect Americans from attack.” The Office of Management and Budget policy statement said such questioning of suspected terrorists has saved American lives by helping to “disrupt multiple terrorist attacks.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. James R. Langevin, members of the intelligence committees in their respective chambers, sat on the House-Senate conference committee that fashioned a compromise between the two versions of the bill. Whitehouse was a cosponsor of the provision to bar certain tough interrogation techniques. Langevin also supported the provision.

Both Rhode Island Democrats say, meanwhile, that they oppose any immediate appointment of a special counsel to investigate the Central Intelligence Agency’s destruction of videotapes of the interrogation of suspected al-Qaeda terrorists. News of the destruction of the tapes — reportedly containing footage of harsh questioning techniques — has raised the temperature of the debate over U.S. intelligence that has simmered since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Some Democrats, including Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, want an independent probe, but Langevin and Whitehouse said they are satisfied for now to let the Justice Department and the congressional intelligence panels proceed with their investigations.

“You can get into a situation in which you’ve got too many people investigating the same thing,” said Whitehouse, adding that he’d consider backing the appointment of a special counsel if it seems necessary. For now, he said he wants to give Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey “the opportunity to show us” that his Justice Department can run a proper investigation of the tapes case, Whitehouse said.

The intelligence bill passed yesterday bans interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, beatings, deprivation of food and water, and various forms of sexual humiliation. The bill accomplishes those prohibitions by binding intelligence agencies to the interrogation rules in the Army Field Manual.

Langevin said he understands that U.S. intelligence personnel used waterboarding in “only a limited number of cases” to interrogate terrorist suspects several years ago. But he said it is important to establish the principle that waterboarding “is an inappropriate method” for U.S. authorities to use in any case.

“The United States should not be involved in the use of torture techniques” even if they did secure information that saved lives, Langevin said. But he said the testimony he has heard suggests that “much more can be achieved with humanitarian techniques.”

Langevin noted that if the new intelligence bill becomes law, it would be the first time in three years that the policy statutes governing U.S. intelligence agencies have been renewed. The new authorization “is essential,” he said, because it includes a number of reforms that would improve the intelligence community’s work against terrorism.

Whitehouse, who a member of the Judiciary and Intelligence committees in the Senate, has been active in the debate about the use of waterboarding by U.S. intelligence operatives. He questioned Mukasey aggressively about his views on waterboarding during a Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination to be attorney general. Whitehouse dissented from the panel’s endorsement of the nomination because Mukasey had declined in testimony to state that he considers waterboarding to be unlawful.

Last week, Whitehouse was one of four senators who cosponsored the amendment to the intelligence bill that would ban the harsh questioning methods. “It is a signal that we expect our enemies to treat Americans humanely and with dignity, and we will do the same with them,” he said at the time.

Whitehouse said yesterday that the conference committee’s vote to accept the new strictures was suspenseful — and was greeted by applause from supporters. “It was a special moment for me as a new senator,” he said.

As the House passed the intelligence bill, the Senate Judiciary Committee sought compromise that could salvage another important intelligence-related measure before Congress breaks until the new year.

Whitehouse expressed hope for a compromise that could bring to the Senate floor an overhaul of the counterterrorism programs including electronic surveillance.

jmulligan@belo-dc.com