Senator Joe Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate who has long championed stronger ties with New Delhi
NEW YORK: Senator Joe Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate who has long championed stronger ties with New Delhi, will give the Indian nuclear deal momentum by reviewing the agreement in a specially-convened panel hearing.
The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which Biden chairs, has called under secretary for political affairs William J Burns, to testify on the implementing 123 Agreement on Thursday.
Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice earlier met senate majority leader Harry Reid to press for the passage of the deal before President Bush leaves office.
“The Senate panel starts the mark-up and is expected to recommend the deal to the
Senate for approval,” an advocate for the deal told DNA.
It is more worrying for the Bush administration that the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Howard Berman, who leaked the sensitive contents of a secret administration letter about the deal, has still to schedule a hearing before his committee. So far, Rice has not been able convince him to set a date for the legislative mark-up process.
In an effort to keep the pressure on Berman, Joe Wilson, Republican co-chair of the jumbo-sized Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, has written a letter to Berman urging him to send a message to the floor of the house before Congress goes into a recess on September 26 for the November elections.
“I request you consider... this historic agreement in the next House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ mark-up so the full House will have an opportunity to vote on this measure before our scheduled adjournment,” wrote Wilson.
The good thing going for the deal is that the House’s top lawmaker, speaker Nancy Pelosi, also supports action on the accord.
Meanwhile, the powerful 300-member US-India Business Council (USIBC) has engaged the politically well-connected and expensive lobbying firms Patton Boggs LLP and Stonebridge International to convey US industry’s sense of urgency to Capitol Hill. They have also unleashed an advertising blitzkrieg highlighting the benefits of the nuclear deal.
“The bottom line is that the Indians have completed all that has been asked of them by the Hyde Act. Congressional ratification is all that is keeping US companies from participating in this historic opportunity,” said Ron Somers, president of the USIBC.
“NSG clearance permits every country but the United States to compete for a share of India’s nuclear pie until our US Congress ratifies the Hyde Act,” said Somers eyeing a $100 billion business opportunity.
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