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Nuke deal may get a bipartisan push

President Bush reiterated his desire to get the deal passed, listing it as one of the priorities for Congress in its upcoming ‘lame-duck’ session.

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NEW DELHI: As the Democrats wrested complete control of Congress, the Bush administration insisted that the changed political equation would not mean the end of the road for its nuclear deal with India.

For the second day running, President George W Bush reiterated his desire to get the deal passed, listing it as one of the priorities for Congress in its upcoming ‘lame-duck’ session. “Congress has to pass the bill allowing civilian nuclear cooperation with India,” he said at the White House on Thursday. The House of Representatives approved the bill in July.

In New Delhi, US Ambassador David Mulford said, “We are optimistic because there is strong bipartisan support for the deal.” Traditionally, lame-duck sessions pass just the money bills and wait for the new House to convene for more substantive issues.

Mulford pointed to Bush’s statement about India and Vietnam being on top of his agenda. He was also encouraged by the fact that leading Democrats have spoken about the importance of the India deal.

Senator Joe Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said lawmakers were “ready to go with the India bill” and that he hoped it would be considered when Congress returns to work next week.

Biden said the final passage in the Senate is possible, but it depends on whether the defeated Republicans are “mature enough to say the voters have spoken”.  

Biden said the number of Democratic amendments, 17, is manageable. He added that it would take “at least a day’s worth of debate, no more than two”, to settle the bill in the Senate. He said he thought it would pass “with a very large vote” in favour, but it was up to Senate Republican leader Bill Frist to decide whether it would be considered.

Representative Tom Lantos, senior member of the House, was quoted as saying that the deal is “very much in our national interest”. He called it “a historic event. Whether we do it in December or February is really secondary, but I am convinced that we should do it.”

Democrat Senator Harry Reid also said, “I think it’s also important that we do something with the India nuclear agreement… India is the largest democracy in the world. We want to work with them…”

A spokesman for Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s No2 Republican, told Reuters “there’s a very good chance” the India bill will come up in the lame-duck session.

With Sachin Kalbag in Washington, DC

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