Key Democrat defies Bush, pledges oversight of US-India nuclear deal

Michael RostonPublished: Wednesday December 27, 2006

A key House Democrat who supported the nuclear cooperation agreement with India has told RAW STORY that, in spite of a signing statement by President George W. Bush insisting otherwise, Congress will engage in active oversight on the deal.

In a public ceremony on December 18th, President Bush signed the "Henry Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act," permitting the US to export fuel to India's civilian nuclear energy program and broadly cooperate with the South Asian country in the nuclear sphere. Based on a variety of concerns that the deal would help India's nuclear weapons program or result in transfer of technology to states like Iran, Congress attached a wide range of conditions to the bill, requiring the president to certify that India was not taking actions that negatively affected US foreign policy goals.

But hours after the public ceremony, the White House issued a "presidential signing statement" which undercut nine substantive sections of the legislation, calling them advisory.

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), the Democrat who will take over as chairman of the House International Relations Committee next month, has told RAW STORY that the president's claim in the signing statement that the bill's provisions are advisory has no standing. "It's very clear what the legislation requires," Lantos said, "and the president may not like it, but it's there."

Requests for comment on Lantos' remarks from the White House were not immediately returned. >>>cont

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