Congress Faults Nuclear Deal With India

Congress Faults Nuclear Deal With India
Cooperation With New Delhi Threatens U.S. Nonproliferation Policy, Lawmakers Say

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 9, 2005; Page A08

The Bush administration came under heavy criticism yesterday by
Republican and Democratic members of Congress for signing a major
nuclear deal with India, which has expressed support for Iran's right
to a nuclear energy program despite U.S. efforts to pressure Tehran
into giving it up.

Members of the House International Relations Committee also chided two
administration officials for reaching the India deal, which would
reverse decades of U.S. policy and could require significant changes
to U.S. laws, without first consulting Congress.

"You chose an initiative for which you may not be able to deliver,
and you chose to make this initiative without, to my knowledge, any
serious prior consultation with the Congress," complained Rep. Jim
Leach (R-Iowa).

The India deal, announced at the White House in July, would for the
first time provide New Delhi with sensitive civilian nuclear
technology. That would create an exception to the U.S. ban on nuclear
assistance to any country that does not accept international
monitoring of its nuclear facilities. India has not signed the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires such oversight, and conducted
its first nuclear detonation in 1974.