Bush has made it clear that his Administration will execute this provision and the various other reporting requirements in the backdrop of the US President’s authority to “protect and control information that could impair foreign relations”. This essentially breaks the linkages being drawn by retired scientists here between this provision and the Cooperative Threat Reduction Programme followed with breakaway republics of the erstwhile USSR.

Besides this, Bush has taken serious exception to a prescription in the main portion of the Act which asks US government to ensure that whatever items it sells to India must be congruent to list of items being made available by the Nuclear Suppliers Group. This provision essentially requires the US Administration to make changes in its list of items to India whenever the NSG makes such amendments in the future.

According to Bush, this has raised a Constitutional question on whether the US legislature has “unconstitutional delegated legislative power to an international body”. To avoid this contest with the legislature, he said his Administration will treat this provision also as “advisory”.