N-deal: US Congress committee to meet next week

The ground work is being laid for the formal meeting of the Conference Committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate next week to arrive at a consensus on both the language and substance of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.

The legislation, which was recently passed by the Senate by a solid bipartisan majority of 85 to 12 votes and had cleared the House of Representatives earlier by an equally thumping majority, will have to once again pass the two legislative chambers after reconciliation and prior to the formal adjournment of the current "Lame Duck" session of the 109th Congress.

At one time there was speculation that the Lame Duck session will last till about the middle of December. But now there are indications that lawmakers may wind it up by December 8 or 9 itself and therefore giving more urgency to the pending business of the US-India nuclear deal.

Senior Congressional staffers of both the House and the Senate -- who will be playing a major role in the process -- have already met to see how this legislation can be moved further forward, sources told PTI.

The Bush administration has started giving its final inputs into the process, it is being said. The administration for its part has its concerns on some of the provisions of the legislation that has come out of the House and the Senate and has even formally said that it would be addressing these -- along with the apprehensions of India -- at the conference stage.

Emphasising that the deal remained its "top priority" during the Lame Duck session, US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said Monday, "We would hope and encourage the Congress not to make changes to the legislation that would materially affect our ability to implement the agreement."

Senior lawmakers on both sides of aisle in the House and the Senate are expected to be very actively involved in the Conference stage. In the Senate, it is said that both current Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist and incoming Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid will be involved in the Conference Committee along with the current Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, and incoming Chairman Joseph Biden. Current Chair of House International Relations Committee Henry Hyde and Incoming Chair Democrat Tom Lantos will also be involved in the Conference proceedings, it is being said.

What is being pointed out at this stage is that the committee will reconcile the two versions of the legislation as also try and come to terms with some of the major concerns raised by the Bush administration and India on certain sections of the legislation.

Once the Conference Committee has agreed on the language and content of the US-India civil nuclear legislation, it will be re-introduced separately in the House and the Senate and voted on again and hopefully carried by a voice vote. The Senate returns for the final phase of the Lame Duck session on December 4 and the House of Representatives meets on December 5.