US House clears n-deal, But wait for final outcome

The news of the House approval — 298 votes in favour, 117 opposed — broke minutes before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to address the Indian community, setting the stage for his speech in which he thanked the US Administration for their efforts. Later, on his way to Marseille for the Indo-EU summit, Singh gave his first reactions. “I have just heard that the House has passed the Bill which will now go to the US Senate. Well, I am happy that one hurdle has been crossed, but it is not the end of the Congressional process and we need to wait for the final outcome,” he said on board the aircraft.

A White House statement quoted President George W Bush as saying “I urge the Senate to quickly take up and pass this important piece of legislation before their October adjournment. Signing this bipartisan Bill will help strengthen our partnership with India.”

Once the Bill is cleared by the Senate, the agreement will be ready to be signed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. But India has asked that Rice’s visit to New Delhi on October 3 be rescheduled since Mukherjee is away.

In the Senate, however, an “on hold” motion has Majority leader Harry Reid working hard to ensure that this is withdrawn and a vote could be taken. It’s learnt that this motion has been moved largely on count of procedures, objecting to the haste with which the Bill was being moved without the customary 30-day waiting period. This motion is more of a Senate convention where even a single member can postpone a Bill to the next session and the identity of the sponsors is only known to the majority and minority leaders. The leadership, sources said, can also overrule this but the effort would be to get everyone on board.

While the Senate deals with this, Indian and US officials have held discussions on a Presidential statement to be issued when the Bill would be signed into US law after Congressional approval. As reported earlier by The Indian Express, the statement will address Indian concerns emerging from the Bill under consideration. There are portions in what is described as ‘declarations of policy’ where India has reservations, particularly on the question of providing fuel only for reasonable reactor operating requirements that goes contrary to India’s right under the agreement to build a strategic fuel reserve for the lifetime supplies of its reactors. Also, provisions like US will prevent NSG members from cooperating with India in case it tests a device have not gone down well with New Delhi even though this section of the Bill is not binding on the US President.

However, as of now, Indian officials are not saying anything on this in public. The official line is that India would not comment on internal procedures of the US, largely because both sides do not want to influence the pace of progress in the Congress. If anything, the vote in House of Representatives was a clear indicator of the increasing disapproval to the extra push being given to the agreement by changing key rules of Congressional consideration.

Given that the agreement was to move through a special procedure suspending the 30-day waiting period, it needed two-thirds majority in a 435-member house and so, the magic number was around 290. In the end, the Bill got 298 votes in favour, just eight more than what was needed. As many as 117 voted against, of which 107 were Democrats and 10 were Republicans. However, 178 Republicans and 120 Democrats still voted in favour of Bill indicating a fair amount of bipartisan support.

Yet, officials agree that this stands in contrast to the fact that 330 votes fell in favour when the Hyde Act was passed in the House. Much of the discontent, sources said, has to do with the immense pressure being brought on the Congress to pass an agreement that was submitted by the White House only on September 11.