N-deal possible but its very tight: Biden

Joseph Biden, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be one of the major players when the final package gets there.

Cautioning that the time frame for the passage of the Indo-US nuclear deal is ‘very, very tight’, an influential American lawmaker has vowed to ‘push like the devil’ if India gets it end done and the accord is presented to Congress for final approval.

Joseph Biden, the Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee who will be one of the major players on Capitol Hill when the final package gets there, warned of the tight window that Congress is facing prior to its adjournment.

“It’s possible, but it’s very, very tight,” Biden told rediff.com/India Abroad.

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Under the present scheme of things, the House of Representatives is due to adjourn on September 26 and the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently announced that he will have the same date too as far as the Senate is concerned.

Biden said he spoke of the time lines in New Delhi when he was there some three months ago, making the point that the nuclear deal will have to get the approval of the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers Group beofore it lands on Capitol Hill.

“… once that occurs, under our law, there is a 30-day of continuous session — which will take about 50 days to get there,” Biden pointed out.

But then top Democrat said “I am going to push like the devil… if they (India) get their end done to do it.”

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“I am an optimist. I am not going to say it (clock) has run out.”

Biden also said President George W Bush can call for a lame-duck session of Congress but he cannot limit it to considering only the civil nuclear deal.

“Once you call a lame-duck session you are in session and so, he may call it for the purpose of trying to get the US-India nuclear deal done, but he cannot limit the session to consider only that,” he said.

“… the President would have a real issue here and it would be real interesting to see what would happen. Is it possible? Yes. And, I am going to do all I can as long as the prime minister (Manmohan Singh) is pushing to accommodate the possibility of us considering the deal, if he gets the sign off as is required from the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers Group. But it’s going to be very tight,” Biden said.

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“I am not being critical, I am not making a judgement about his internal politics. I am just saying it’s going to be very difficult,” he added.

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