US India Political Action Commt lobbies for N-deal

Washington, May 19: In an effort to shore up support for the civil nuclear cooperation agreement, the US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) has met with the top leadership in the US Congress including Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

In an extensive lobbying day on Capitol Hill yesterday the USINPAC also met with Ranking Member of the House International Relations Committee Tom Lantos, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Charles Rangel and the Chief of Staff for Majority Leader John Boehner.

Speaker Hastert and Majority Leader Boehner are the top two Republicans in the US House of Representatives and, since the Republicans control the House, their support is critical to the successful passage of the civil nuclear cooperation agreement.

Speaker Hastert who is the third most powerful public official in America after the President and Vice-President felt that the issue was so important that he held a private meeting with USINPAC Chairman Sanjay Puri and Congressmen Chris Cannon and Eni Faleomavaega, co-chairs of the Congressional Taskforce on US India Trade, to discuss ways to move this legislation forward.

''I want to work with USINPAC to build support from the ground up...and I commend USINPAC and USIBA for the work you are doing,'' he said.

USINPAC also met with Rep Charles Rangel, the most senior Democratic Member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee which has jurisdiction for all trade issues. Due to his position as one of the most important Democrats in Congress, his views on the nuclear agreement will influence others and, for this reason, USINPAC has sought his support.

Rep Tom Lantos reiterated his strong support for the US-India civil nuclear agreement. Out of fear that the deal would not pass this year, Rep Lantos recently announced a legislative ''compromise'' that ''puts the Congress on record explicitly welcoming the agreement and its positive impact on our relations with India''.

After the details of the 123 civilian nuclear agreement are finalised between the US and India, the legislation would be put on a ''fast track'' process that is reserved only for critical legislation. Also, the 'Lantos compromise' would not allow other Members of Congress to add amendments to the agreement aimed to hurt the bill. This is currently a major worry of supporters for the agreement, since if a vote were held today, some Members of Congress opposed to the deal would try to stop its passage by adding amendments that would be deal-breakers for India.

According to a USINPAC press release other members of Congress supportive of the nuclear agreement, include Senator Mike Dewine, Tom Price, Luis Gutierrez, Charles Boustany, Henry Bonilla, Kenny Marchant, Sam Johnson, Ralph Hall, Michael Conaway, John Linder, and Jeb Hensarling.

UNI

Related Stories