WASHINGTON, Oct. 3: The White House has said that the nuclear deal with India continues to be ‘a top priority’ for the Bush administration despite the US Senate’s failure to approve it before adjourning.
In a statement on Monday, the White House said it was disappointed with the Senate’s failure to endorse the deal before Saturday when the current session ended. The White House, however, hoped that it would be approved during a ‘lame duck’ session in November.
If the Senate fails to pass the bill in November, the entire process must start anew. It will once again have to go through the committees and the House of Representatives, whose new session starts in January. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the bill in July,
Even if the Senate acts, other approvals are needed before India is able to acquire nuclear fuel and reactors from the United States and other countries, virtually ensuring that final action will not happen until till 2007.
The deal has been hailed by President George W. Bush as the core of building a new US relationship with India after years of estrangement and a financial boon to American business. Once approved, it will allow nuclear-armed India access to US nuclear fuel and reactors for the first time.
President Bush had personally appealed to Republican senators to approve the bill before the recess and had asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to stay engaged with the lawmakers. But despite their efforts, the Republican-led Senate let the India bill languish when the session ended on Saturday.
The bill apparently got snared in a political tiff between majority Republican and minority Democrat leaders, both blaming each other for the delay in bringing it before the Senate.
Both sides alleged that the other had blocked a unanimous consent proposal that would have guaranteed Senate consideration and a final vote on the deal before Congress adjourned for the November elections.
Republican majority leader Bill Frist said ‘colleagues on the other side of the aisle’ had objected to his offer of a unanimous consent agreement.
Claiming that the boot was on the other leg, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said, ‘unfortunately, the Republican leader had objected’ to his proposal.
Both India and the Bush administration are now trying for passage in the ‘lame duck’ legislative session after the November 7 election, but the outcome is not guaranteed.
The session is expected to run from one to three weeks, and the press of other business, plus continuing disputes between Republicans and Democrats, could still thwart a vote.
There are differences within the Republicans as well over the substance of the bill which may further delay its consideration. Since the bill’s endorsement by the Foreign Relations Committee, the Republican leader in the Senate brought 16 different legislative matters to the Senate floor, leaving little time for the India bill during the just-concluded session.
Senate Democrats have been strong supporters of the bill since the administration announced this proposal in March and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved it in June.
The Bush administration made a last-minute bid to break the impasse over the deal in the Senate. Shortly before the Senate adjourned, Senator Frist took the floor to say that his party was prepared to pass with no further debate a managers’ amendment developed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Dick Lugar and its ranking Democrat, Tom Biden.
