Senate version of bill on n-deal introduced in House

Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington, Sept 25 (PTI) In a further push to the
Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, the Senate version of the legislation
on the subject has been introduced in the House of
Representatives but it was still not clear whether the pact
would be ready for signing when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
meets President George W. Bush early Friday morning (IST).

After suspension of rules, the legislation that comes
with a rider that will prevent the transfer of nuclear
equipment, materials or technology from the N.S.G. countries
or any other source in the event of New Delhi conducting a
test, was introduced in the House by ranking Republican,
Florida Congresswomen Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, on the House
Foreign Affairs Committee.

Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and Prime
Minister's special envoy on the deal Shyam Saran, now in New
York with the PM, have arrived here to join National Security
Adviser M. K. Narayanan ahead of Singh's arrival here to
tie-up any loose ends.

Though the Indian side has maintained on record that
the Bill was an "internal process" of the U.S., the officials
are said to be not happy with the language of the legislation
titled 'A Bill relating to India nuclear cooperation'.

Congressional sources are fairly confident that the
U.S.-India agreement will come up for discussion on the House
floor on Thursday, but the process is unlikely to be completed
the same day.

Whether Singh, who meets Bush at 0230 hrs (IST Friday)
at the White House, will sign the deal with him agreed between
them three years ago still remained a matter of speculation
with time fast running out.

Congressional aides, both Republican and Democrat,
have made no bones of the fact that although there is
tremendous bi-partisan support to the nuclear deal, the
financial crisis in the U.S. has diverted attention of the
lawmakers in the last ten days.

There was a different perspective from the office of
the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
Congressman Howard Berman, a naysayer on the deal.

"That is not accurate. A number of reporters have
called today asking about a variety of things they are hearing
from sources.

"I have told them all the same thing and on the
record: Chairman Berman is still considering his options, in
consultation with his colleagues," Lynne Weil, spokeswoman
for the Committee, said in an e-mail when asked to comment on
reports that a resolution on the deal was going to be
introduced in the House.

Sources said the Administration and members of the
Congress were looking at various other legislative options.

Even so the Acting Chair of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, who is also the Chairman of the Senate
Banking Committee, Senator Chris Dodd, put in considerable
time on the deal both at formal hearings and playing a
critical role in getting past the Business Session of his
Foreign Relations Committee.

It is being pointed out that one reason for
Congresswomen Ros-Lehtinen to introduce the Senate version in
the House is to cut down the time to be spent on
reconciliation of the two versions of the bill.

Also the leadership in the House, it is being pointed
out, appears to have acted in good speed to have the Rules
Committee agree to the suspension of rules on a number of
measures including the Bill related to 'India Nuclear
Cooperation'.

Congressional aides and staffers believe that there is
still some work to be done -- in the Senate on reporting the
Bill to the Floor by working out the unanimous consent -- and
in seeing what other options are there beyond the tagging of
the deal in the huge Continuing Resolution package.

One view is that the U.S.-India nuclear cooperation
agreement would have to be tied to a separate package, say
like a second stimulus package of USD 50 billion that the Bush
administration is considering or perhaps even going on its own
although the possibility of this is seen as difficult given
the existing time frame of Congressional schedule.