US Congress to take up ratification of 123 Agreement

Washington, Sept 7 : The Bush Administration is all set to push the Indo-US civil nuclear deal through the US Congress after the historic waiver from the 45 member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in Vienna on Saturday.

The short session of US Congress begins on Monday and will take up ratification of the 123 Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement signed between President, George W. Bush and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in July 2005.

Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Algiers that she has already talked to the heads of the Committees of both the Houses of Congress for pushing through the deal.

Normally 30 working days is the mandatory period required for a legislation to be passed in both the Houses of the Congress, but there are procedures for short-circuiting this period, which was invoked by Bush to ratify the 123 Agreement when Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh travels to Washington this month.

Once the agreement gets Congress sanction, it overrides the domestic Hyde Act.

The Prime Minister will go to Washington later this month and meet President Bush. The two leaders may ratify the Indo-US nuclear deal, if approved by US Congress by then.

ANI