Pre-poll theatrics delay n-bill

WASHINGTON: With the bill enabling Indo-US nuclear deal deferred till November after high drama in the Senate, observers are now blaming pre-election theatrics and posturing by Republicans and Democrats as well procedural delays for the failure to push through the measure.

The US Senate went into recess on Saturday prior to the November 7 Congressional polls having failed to move the civilian nuclear deal to the floor for a debate and vote. now the ‘United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Co-operation Act of 2006’ or ‘S 3709’ can only be taken up at the Senate’s ‘Lame Duck’ session in mid-November.

Bush Administration’s all out efforts to push the deal came a cropper as Republicans and Democrats failed to come to an understanding on the Unanimous Consent Agreement that both the Majority Leader Bill Frist and the Minority Leader Harry Reid said they were going to on Friday.

Congressional observers said what was witnessed in the Senate chambers including a so-called high drama minutes before the session came to an end on Saturday morning is nothing out of the ordinary with both Republicans and Democrats indulging in some pre-election theatrics and posturing.

While the Republicans blamed Democrats for blocking the legislation, the Democrats, turning the tables, argued that the Grand Old Party had all the time in world between the end of June and end of September but allowed the legislation to be held ‘hostage’ to a small group of conservative Republicans. It is being maintained in some quarters that all parties are to blame for the current stand-off on Capitol Hill — Republicans, the Bush administration and the Democrats.

Procedurally the major problem came by way of the Title Two ‘tag along’ to S 3709, the civilian nuclear legislation — something that had nothing to do with the original piece of legislation but an additional protocol between the US and the IAEA.

Observers claim that chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, should not have tagged along this piece of legislation to the Senate Bill on India with some alleging that the Bush administration perhaps did little to dissuade the Senior Republican.

It was not until about 10 days ago that Senator Lugar worked out the acceptable language to a group of three Senators so as to lift their anonymous hold, but just in time for Democrats to start complaining that Senator had given away “too much”.

Valuable time was lost and that too when Republicans, Democrats and the administration knew that the Senate agenda prior to its scheduled recess was crowded.
Sources told PTI that the two sides are quite a distance away from bridging their differences. The Republicans could be toying with the idea of forcing the legislation on to the floor of the Senate, then invoking cloture to cut off debate and voting on the measure if the Democrats still insist in procedurally objecting to the Unanimous Consent agreement in the Lame Duck session. PTI SK RT 10011120 DEL (REOPENING FGN8)
But the downside to this is that the nuclear deal will move away from the bipartisan label it now has to partisan rancor if the Grand Old Party insist on ramming it through the Senate through procedural maneuvering based on numbers.
According to sources, the Democrats are insisting as many as 19 amendments, well over the five offered by the Republican Majority Leader. The Democrats apparently are making the argument that their amendments could be wrapped up in a day’s time and have rejected the Republican plea of folding the 19 into about seven amendments.

The Republican leadership has pointed out that four of the five amendments that it had agreed to are from that of the Democrats and that these are substantive ones including in the category of so-called “killer” amendments.

Further the Republican leadership has said that it is quite amenable to a debate of one hour on each one of the five amendments, not including the one hour time for the general debate. All time on the floor will be equally divided.

With the Senate having gone into recess for the November elections, the stage may be officially set for the Lame Duck session but here again sources point out that forward movement on the Unanimous Consent agreement will take place only closer to November 9 when the Senate is expected to meet for the introduction of Bills.

Political analysts are also making the point that much will also depend on the post election scene on Capitol Hill with the Democrats’ attitude dependent on how many seats they win in the November 7 showdown or if the Party manages to get hold of the House of Representatives or the Senate or both.