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Congress Might Miss Bush Deadline on India Deal
Bipartisan concerns in both houses of the U.S. Congress about the civilian nuclear cooperation deal with India leave it unclear whether lawmakers would finish their work by the Bush administration’s November deadline, USA Today reported yesterday (see GSN, June 21). “We are optimistic ... that this legislation can go forward,” Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said yesterday. “This is good for our country.” However, Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), co-chairman of the Senate’s “Friends of India” caucus, said he could not say whether the deal “will get done this year.” Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said members of both parties are likely to push for changes, including requiring India to accept a moratorium on fissile material production; insisting on an up-or-down vote in Congress on the potential formal treaty; and making a nuclear test ban by India a non-negotiable part of the pact (Bill Nichols, USA Today, June 21). Kimball said early approval by Congress would allow the Bush administration to make concessions to India in final negotiations, the Financial Times reported (Guy Dinmore, Financial Times, June 21). U.S. Ambassador to India Ronen Sen, who has met with members of Congress in recent months to lobby for the legislation, said he is “reasonably sure” that Congress will pass a deal palatable to New Delhi, USA Today reported. “I sensed a growing realization that the proposed nuclear deal was as much in the interests of the United States as it was for meeting India’s energy requirements,” Sen said (Nichols, USA Today, June 21). Several technical and political issues remain unresolved, said Robert Einhorn, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Times. These include India’s refusal to formally accept a nuclear weapons test ban, he said (Dinmore, Financial Times, June 21). Burns said the Bush administration supports enabling legislation that has been reworked in the House of Representatives, the Associated Press reported today. It is also working with the Senate on a corresponding bill. “Because of the interplay between Congress and the administration this is a stronger bill,” he said. Details of the latest version of the legislation have not been released, AP reported. Representative Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) said the original bill was a “nonstarter” because it expected Congress to “take at face value what may or may not be negotiated by the United States.” He added that his changes were incorporated in the updated bill (Foster Klug, Associated Press, June 22).
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