The House-Senate conference committee compromise legislation to facilitate the US-India civilian nuclear agreement has been signed off by the conferees from both Chambers of Congress and now cleared the major hurdle sans any extraneous legislative item unrelated to the nuclear bill, before it goes to the President's desk for signature.
Congressional sources said that all that remains to be done now is for the conference committee report -- which, in essence is the compromise legislation -- will now be filed with the clerk of the House sometime on Thursday afternoon or early Friday.
It will then be voted on by a voice vote by both chambers and immediately sent to the White House for signature.
They said this was a formality now that the conferees had signed off on it and an aye vote was imminent.
Administration officials said that all systems are go for the signing ceremony that would take place on Monday, December 11 with President George W Bush signing the bill into law.
The House Rules Committee was likely to meet on Thursday to exempt the US-India nuclear deal legislation from the normal House rules that requires legislation to be filed three days in advance of a vote, particularly since the Congressional leadership on both aisles had made clear that they wanted to see this legislation completed and on the President's desk before Congress adjourns.
However, sources said they could not disclose the contents of the conference report, which is embargoed, until as such time as the Rules Committee filed the legislation.
But these sources had earlier told rediff.com that while all of the amendments, both in the Senate and House bill, that have caused major concern to India, have not been totally eliminated, they had been "tweaked" to the extent that New Delhi's have been alleviated.
One source said, for example, with regard to the Harkin Amendment on Iran, introduced by Senator Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, that was adopted by the Senate last month, which called for a Presidential determination that India is actively supporting US and international efforts to contain, and if necessary sanction India's Iran's nuclear program in a manner consistent with UN Security Council resolutions, had been 'tweaked' to translate into simply a reporting requirement by the President with no conditional determination.
The sources said similar 'tweaking' had been done with Sections 106 and 107 of the Senate bill that India had major concerns with, by a turn of phrase and language that removed the perception of a conditionality that India had to adhere to, and instead required only a presidential reporting requirement.
Section 106 prohibits the export of any equipment, materials or technology related to the enrichment of uranium, the processing of spent fuel, or the production of heavy water; Section 107 requires an end-use monitoring program to be carried out with respect to US exports and re-exports of nuclear materials, equipment and technology sold or leased to India.
The compromise legislation which had hit a procedural snag on Wednesday afternoon -- when one of the House conferees, House Majority Leader John Boehner had put a hold on the conference committee report -- was resolved Thursday morning.
Then, it was signed off by both the House and Senate conferees, with the latter sending it immediately back to the House for it to be posted by the Rules Committee for the formality vote before it's sent to the White House for the President's signature.
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