WASHINGTON, Nov 14: The India-US nuclear deal is one of the three top priority items on the agenda for the lame-duck session of the US Senate which began this week.
The other two items announced on Monday are the spending bills and the Vietnam trade bill.
The session began in a spirit of bipartisanship after the defeat of the Republicans in last week's midterm elections. “We must work together to overcome the crippling partisanship that has plagued our recent past. We must return to an era of working together in a bipartisan fashion,” said the outgoing Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Republican presidential aspirant in 2008.
"We can't accomplish anything as Democrats standing alone. As we've shown, the Republicans couldn't accomplish theirs standing alone," said Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada, who will become the new majority leader in January.
This is that awkward week on Capitol Hill when the people who just won seats in Congress come to vote in leadership elections and meet those they just beat in last week's elections. The new winners are known as freshmen while the losers are called lame-ducks.
As the Senate met on Monday afternoon, Senator Frist announced his agenda for the session: Completing the remaining appropriations bills, nomination of Bob Gates as Secretary of Defence, Vietnam trade legislation, and the US-India civilian nuclear technology bill, among others.
Senator Reid called on Congress to pass the US-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation bill, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, and the Gulf of Mexico Security Act conference report. He also called for the passage of tax breaks for middleclass families and businesses as well as appropriations bills that include funding for veterans healthcare, education and energy programmes.
The Senate leaders returned to the chamber just before it rose for the day to announce agreement on taking up three items this week-- spending bills, Vietnam and India in that order.
There are some other items that President Bush would like to see attended to, as well. They include the confirmation of his UN ambassador, John Bolton, who has been serving in temporary status. Also on the table is the bill approving the administration's five-year-old programme for tapping US phones without a warrant if a call comes in from a suspected terrorist overseas.
