Bush warned on risks to
By Demetri Sevastopulo
Financial Times
August 7, 2008
A powerful Democrat
on Wednesday warned the Bush administration that its landmark civil nuclear
deal with
Howard Berman, the
Democratic chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, said it was
“incomprehensible” that
“Such an exemption
would be inconsistent with
One condition
included in the Hyde Act was that the
“Mr
Berman couldn’t make it more clear. The Hyde Act is
the standard that he is holding the NSG and the White House [to],” said Henry Sokolski, executive director of the
NSG approval is required
before Congress can sign off on the controversial US-India nuclear pact.
Critics say the deal undermines the nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, which
Even if the NSG
approved the exemptions soon after that, Congress may not have enough time to
consider the agreement, which requires 30 days of examination.
Mr Berman said it was
unlikely Congress would have time to determine the impact on US and
international non-proliferation standards before its planned recess on
September 26 ahead of the presidential elections.
“Any effort to
consider the agreement outside of the requirements of current law will be
impossible if the administration accepts an NSG exemption that fails to include
the Hyde Act conditions,” he wrote.
Mr Berman urged the administration to suspend efforts to get an NSG decision this year unless it was willing to reverse its position on seeking a clean exemption.