President Bush this week will veto intelligence legislation that would outlaw the use of harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, triggering what will almost certainly be an unsuccessful House override attempt.

“The president is expected to veto it next week,” White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said Feb. 29 of the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill (HR 2082), which she said the White House had received the same day. The Senate cleared the measure by a vote of 51-45 on Feb. 13.

The measure, which would authorize funding for the intelligence community, would require its agencies to adopt the Army Field Manual’s restrictions on “enhanced” interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning.

“Hopefully we’ll address the problematic provisions and quickly send the bill back to the president for a signature,” said one Senate Republican aide.

Bush was not expected to veto the bill until after Tuesday’s primaries, since numerous lawmakers will not be on Capitol Hill.

A House Democratic aide said the House would hold a veto override vote on the legislation.

The conference report (H Rept 110-478) on the intelligence measure drew 222 votes in the House, far short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override a veto. There has been no indication of a major shift of opinion among House Republicans.

The bill also includes a number of provisions requested by the Bush administration. But the language on interrogations drew a veto threat from the White House, which said the measure would constrain the CIA’s intelligence-gathering capabilities.

Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, who sponsored the interrogation provision, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island urged Bush in a Feb. 29 op-ed commentary to sign the legislation.

“It is the right thing to do,” Feinstein and Whitehouse wrote in the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Waterboarding and the other coercive techniques are torture, and their use does not befit our great nation.

“Our intelligence agencies would be able to effectively interrogate detainees — by using 19 techniques that are today used with success by the military,” they wrote. “And it would go a long way to restoring the standing of our nation in the eyes of the world.”

CIA Director Michael V. Hayden rejected the need for the provision, noting that waterboarding is not in current use and that the CIA’s techniques have been deemed legal by the Justice Department.

“The manual meets the needs of the American military and is sufficient for their purposes,” Hayden said in a statement. “But no one can claim that it exhausts the universe of lawful techniques available to the Republic to defend itself — techniques not useful or not suited to the Army’s circumstances but fully consistent with the Geneva Convention and with current U.S. law.”

In addition to its interrogation provision, the bill would create an annual reporting system to guard against cost overruns on major intelligence acquisition projects and would require extensive reports to Congress on the use of contractors.

The measure would create an inspector general for the entire intelligence community and require Senate confirmation for the directors of the National Security Agency and National Reconnaissance Office.

It also would grant the Office of the Director of National Intelligence new personnel and pay authority, such as a provision allowing the director to convert contractors into full government employees.