Mark up on Indo-US nuke deal on June 27

The International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives will take up the process of fine-tuning the legislation in the United States Congress to implement the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal will be taken up on June 27.

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According to sources, the original impression was that the House Committee would be doing the process known as 'mark-up' on June 21, which was to have been followed by the Senate. The idea was that both the House and the Senate committees will have the mark ups out of the way by the end of the month with a view to paving the way for a full vote in the House and Senate chambers by the end of July.

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The Bush administration is quite keen on having the legislation out of the way by the end of summer or by the end of July for Congress breaks for a recess and does not assemble until the first week of September.

Political analysts say that this is rather an 'optimistic' time frame given that Congressional elections are on November 7 and lawmakers will not be having enough time to deal with the issue given the agenda already on hand.

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In the Senate, Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar and the ranking Democrat Joseph Biden are said to be putting their heads together to come up with a legislation on which the panel can act upon. The Senate legislation at the committee level is likely to be taken up on June 28.