[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Page 21705]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 3709

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I do want to turn to another very important 
issue. It is an issue the Democratic leader and I have been discussing 
and moving towards. It is on the India nuclear arrangement. I will 
propound a unanimous consent request and comment after that.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the 
immediate consideration of S. 3709, the U.S.-India nuclear bill. I ask 
consent that the managers' amendment at the desk be agreed to, the 
bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, and the motion to 
reconsider be laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Democratic leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I support 
this legislation. I have for many months. This was reported out of the 
committee sometime in July. And from that time to today, we have given 
the majority a proposal for a limited number of amendments. When we get 
back after the election--I have spoken to the majority leader--
certainly there is a commitment from us that we would complete this 
bill very expeditiously. This has been rejected.
  As I have indicated, this bill has been on the calendar since July, 
and it has not been scheduled. We could have acted on this a long time 
ago. It was held up initially because of an arms control measure that 
was placed in the bill by Senator Lugar. And a number of people on the 
majority side, the Republican side, held this up. It took a lot of 
time. It was not brought forward. And that is unfortunate.
  So I will object to this consent request. I look forward to working 
with the majority leader in November to complete this act. It is very 
important. I acknowledge that. I hope, certainly, we can do that during 
the lame-duck session. It is one of my priorities.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I know my distinguished Democratic 
colleague agrees with me about the need to enact this United States-
India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act.
  Therefore, once again, I am disappointed that this Senate is 
prevented from passing this important legislation by their objection.
  All Republican Members of the Senate are prepared, this evening, to 
pass the managers' amendment to the legislation without any debate or 
amendment. But it is clear the Democrats will not allow us to do so.
  The reason so many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
are not prepared to pass the legislation is that in some cases they 
oppose it and wish to defeat it, and in other cases, a lot of 
amendments. In my opinion and the opinion of other Republican Members 
of the Chamber, there really is no need to further amend the managers' 
amendment. It was carefully worked out between Chairman Lugar and 
Ranking Member Biden of the Committee on Foreign Relations. They have 
done an outstanding job working on that bill and refining that bill 
that was reported by their committee. It is a tribute to their fine 
work, to their dedication, to their hard work that all concerns with 
that legislation, at least on our side of the aisle, have been fully 
addressed.
  The reason I have continued to push for it is because it means that 
now that we have this recess, we will not be able to get back to it 
until November. And this means we just lose valuable time in working 
out differences between S. 3709 and the corresponding bill that has 
already been approved by the House of Representatives for several weeks 
now. So that is the reason I have tried to work out a reasonable way of 
addressing this and have not been successful to date.
  So with that, Mr. President, I hope we will be able to do this just 
as soon as possible. If there is no progress made on the other side 
between now and November in narrowing down the large number of 
amendments on the other side, we would have to take the measure up 
under cloture. That is not the way I would want to proceed. When I look 
at the large number of amendments on the other side, though, it looks 
like we would have no alternative. I assure our colleagues that I 
consider this legislation very high priority, and absolutely I am 
determined to bring it back to the floor at the earliest date 
possible--I hope soon after we return.
  We have a lot of legislation to do when we come back. We need to get 
to this as quickly as possible. With that, there should be no doubt on 
our side of the determination and President Bush's commitment on this 
matter and to get this done as soon as possible.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, if I may say a final word. The problem with 
the managers' amendment, all the amendments are Republicans' 
amendments. We don't have the numbers, but I think we have a few 
amendments that would strengthen the bill. We have discussed this 
publicly and privately and here is where we are. It is unfortunate. It 
is something that should be done. There is not a country in the world, 
in my opinion, that deserves more attention than India--maybe some as 
much as them, but they have been a good partner of ours. I think this 
would be a step forward for the world and our two countries.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, it is my understanding the managers' 
amendment has been worked out between Senator Lugar and Senator Biden 
to their satisfaction.
  We all agree that it is critical to do this as soon as possible. We 
have this promise of a new relationship between our Nation and India, 
which is the world's largest democracy, and it is a relationship 
President Bush has begun to construct. That can only grow if Congress 
delivers on the commitment the President put forward to revise the U.S. 
law. There should be no doubt about our determination to deliver on 
President Bush's commitment.

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