Bush admn to push through Congress N-deal with India

Washington, Sept 7 (PTI) In a race against time, a buoyant Bush Administration, happy at a rare foreign policy triumph, will try to push through the US Congress the nuclear deal with India after its ringing endorsement by the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (N.S.G.) in Vienna.

A clear indication of the Administration's intent was given by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said the time was short and she has talked to the heads of the Committees of both the houses of Congress for pushing through the deal.

"I have already talked before this N.S.G. (meeting),
several weeks before, to relevant committee chairs about
trying to get it done, and I will have those conversations
again, most likely on Monday or Tuesday, as well as trying to
see whether the leadership believes that this can go forward,"
Rice told reporters in Algiers, the capital of Algeria while
on a visit there.


Rice, however said, the time is "very short," adding "we
knew that in the summer, when the Indians were able finally to
move this forward in their domestic process."

"But I think we have demonstrated the commitment of the
administration to this agreement, because we have worked this
with the very, very strong help of partners through the
I.A.E.A. and through the N.S.G. in very rapid order," she
said.

With a formidable hurdle cleared in the nuclear cartel
N.S.G., eyes are now on the US Congress, which begins a short
session tomorrow, for ratification of the 123 civil nuclear
cooperation agreement signed between President George W Bush
and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2005 before the end
of Bush's term in mid-January.

Normally 30 working days is the mandatory period required
for a legislation to be passed in both the houses of the
Congress but there are procedures for short-circuiting
this period, a device that can be invoked by President Bush
so that he is in a position to ratify the 123 agreement when
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh travels to Washington later
this month.

For this, the initiative has to come from the
Administration. Such an initiative is widely expected from
an Administration that is clearly short on foreign policy
achievements under Bush other than the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Rice has to send a "forward note" to the Chairmen of the
House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee and a "confidential report" from the
C.I.A. that the legislation satisfies the non-proliferation
goals.

Former Indian Ambassador Lalit Mansingh, a strong
votary of the deal, feels it is entirely possible that the
123 agreement, is in its last lap, and could be pushed
through the US Congress in the limited time that is available
now.

He said as part of the quickening process a Presidential
determination on seven to eight aspects of the deal can made
by Bush so that the Committees need not waste much time ahead
of the 'up down' votes in which amendments cannot be made to
the legislation, 'a take it or leave it' provision.

The only snag, he feels, is the presence of maverick
Democrat Howard R Berman, Chairman of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, a strong opponent of the deal who made
public during the week the State Department's letter to his
predecessor Tom Lantos, in an apparent bid to vitiate the
chances of India getting the waiver at the NSG.

Still Mansingh is hopeful that even Berman could be
persuaded to support the deal by the nuclear business lobby,
the Indo-American lobby and the Jewish American lobby as
after all the US Presidential candidate Barack Obama and his
running mate Joseph Biden, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, are strong votaries of the deal

In the event difficulties arise, the session of the
Congress that is scheduled to last till September 26 could
either be extended or a 'lame duck' session be called after
the Presidential election in the first week of November to
approve the 123 agreement.

Once the agreement gets Congress sanction, it overrides
the domestic Hyde Act, which Indian opposition parties fear
has 'harmful' provisions that could bind India's right to test
atomic tests and other similar aspects.

Even in the the worst case scenario, Ambassador Mansingh
believes, the legislation could be left to the next
Administration, which is also widely perceived to be
'pro-deal', to push the agreement through the next Congress
because by then all the ground work could have been completed
and there would be no need for short-circuiting the process.

The attention is now on if the Bush administration will
be able to impress upon Congressional leaders to waive the
30-day requirement and take up the initiative before formally
winding up the 110th Congress on September 26.

Sources told PTI that the administration is likely to
make one big push and might even be able to make some headway
in the House Rules Committee. But the Senate will be a
different cup of tea as it goes by "unanimous consent" and
even one lawmaker can hold up a process. There were as many as
12 Senators who were opposed to the Hyde Act.

But what some are cautioning is the administration
approaching Congress for a waiver of rules and bring the
civilian nuclear deal straight to the floor and in the process
open up the deal to amendments -- a scenario that may not be
too appealing given the high drama that went about during the
passage of the Hyde Act in 2006.

The civilian nuclear deal may have yet another lease
of life should Congress return for a 'Lame Duck' session after
the November 4 Presidential and Congressional elections.

But this session is far from certain given that several
Democratic leaders, smelling blood on November 4 by way of
major gains in the House and Senate including perhaps the
Presidency, will not be inclined to come back and finish the
unfinished business of the 110th Congress.

Supporters of the US-India civilian nuclear deal have
pointed out that one major thing going for the Initiative on
Capitol Hill is that whether it is the 110th Congress or the
incoming 111th Congress, the deal has the backing of the
leaders of the House and the Senate. PTI SK