Washington: The US Senate plans to take up and vote on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal on Wednesday, three days after the House of Representatives approved the accord, Senate majority leader Harry Reid said.
The legislation on the deal would be taken up after sundown local time (early Thursday morning IST), after another pending legislation the Rail Safety Amtrak bill is voted on by lawmakers.
“We’re going to move to continue on the consideration of HR 2095, the Rail Safety Amtrak legislation debate today. There will be no roll call votes today in honour of the Rosh Hashanah holiday, but we will have votes tomorrow evening after sundown," Senator Reid said on the Floor of the Senate at the start of the day's proceedings," Senator Reid said on the Floor of the Senate at the start of the day's proceedings.
“We're still working on agreement to consider the US-India nuclear agreement. I'm quite sure we can finalise that so there can be a vote on that tomorrow," Reid said before speaking on the implications of the financial stabilisation package that has been rejected by the House of Representatives.
Unlike the House of Representatives which needed a two-thirds majority, the Senate requires only a simple majority to approve the legislation.
Before the House rejected the $700-billion bailout package to rescue bankrupt financial institutions on Monday, Reid had said the "India nuclear agreement" will be coming up for a vote only on Wednesday along with the financial bill, when the Senate reconvenes after the Jewish holiday.
A clearance in the Senate will allow India and the US to sign the landmark accord and resume bilateral nuclear trade. India today signed a civil atomic cooperation agreement with France today, ending 34-years of nuclear isolation.
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