The Republican chairs and ranking Democrats of the key Senate and House Committees vital to the approval of the Bush administration's request for changes in legislation to envisage the passage of the US-India civilian nuclear agreement have written to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling on her to consult with them before submitting the administration proposal seeking Congressional endorsement of the deal.
Senator Richard Lugar, Indiana Republican, who chairs the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the panel's ranking Democrat Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware and Representative Henry Hyde, Illinois Republican, who chairs the House International Relations Committee, ranking Democrat Representative Tom Lantos of California, in a jointly signed letter to Rice acknowledged, "The US-India Joint Statement of July 18,2005," signed by President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during their White House summit on the same day, "holds the promise of a new era of partnership between our two nations."
In their missive, a copy of which was obtained by rediff.com, the lawmakers noted that "the announcement listed a number of broad and substantive areas in which cooperation between the two countries is to be significantly increased, including a major expansion of obligations and changes to US law that we believe warrant careful consideration".
Thus, they said, in order "to ensure that this process proceeds in both a timely and thorough manner, we write today to request that the administration begin considerations with the Congress on the initiatives embodied in that declaration".
The lawmakers, whose letter was dated October 17, just a day before the major foreign policy speech at the Asia Society on the future of US-India relations buoyed by the new strategic partnership by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns -- the administration's point man who has been annointed to work with Congress to seek passage of the agreement, and on the eve of his departure to India to seek concrete guarantees from India regarding the separation of its civilian and military nuclear facilities, central to the agreement, said that it is imperative that the administration work in sync with Congress for any consideration of this agreement.
The letter stated that "senior State Department officials have assured us that the administration and the Department of State will work closely with our committees regarding any changes to US law that may be sought to expedite expanded nuclear cooperation with New Delhi".
Consequently, they argued that "we firmly believe that such consultation will be crucial to the successful consideration of the final agreement or agreement by our committees and the Congress as a whole".
The lawmakers recalled that Burns in his testimony before the House International Relations Committee on September 8, had stated "that the reason the Congress had not been kept informed of the negotiations leading up to the announcement of the agreement was that the pace of the discussions had made it impossible to do so".
In a thinly veiled warning that not keeping Congress apprised would be detrimental to garnering any support for approval of this deal, the lawmakers informed Rice that "in order to avoid a similar situation from occurring, we ask that you begin substantive discussions with our respective committees as soon as possible before final decisions are made on any new legislative proposals".
The lawmakers wrote that "as the chairs of ranking members of the committees of jurisdiction on these issues, we look forward to working closely with you to ensure that the elements of the Joint Statement are given due Congressional consideration as we seek to advance the US-India strategic partnership and US foreign security and non-proliferation policies".
During the September 8 hearing, lawmakers took Burns to task for not consulting Congress before President Bush signed the deal with Dr Singh, even as they raised concerns over what the agreement would do to Washington's professed commitment to non-proliferation.
Congressman Jim Leach, Iowa Republican and chair of the House International Relations' Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, pilloried Burns saying, "You chose to make this initiative without, to my knowledge, any serious prior consultation with Congress."
"It is hard," Leach pointed out, "to cement any relations with any country based on promises that may not be deliverable."
Burns, who was clearly on the defensive at the hearing, that was permeated by an attack by Lantos on India's relations with Iran and a threat that India would have to make a choice between the US and Iran otherwise the US-India relationship would "go down the tubes", kept saying,"We hear the message."
"I just want to assure you that we understand the seriousness of Congress' role in looking at the efforts being made," by the administration.
Burns apologised to the lawmakers for not having taken them into confidence before Bush signed the nuclear deal with India and said, "We were not willing to enter into an agreement unless we had a verifiable set of commitments, which the Indian government was willing to agree to, and they issued these just a few hours before the president sat down with the prime minister."
Burns kept saying that going forward, the administration would consult with Congress and Rice would appear before the relevant committees as many times as they would wish her to in order to elucidate any concerns they may have.
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