Senate vote on nuke deal unlikely before recess

The Senate will not take up the Indo-US civil nuclear deal before the chamber breaks for the summer recess on August 4, a senior lawmaker has said.

"No. I hope after that," Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Richard Lugar told reporters after his address to the Indian American Friendship Council, celebrating its 10th anniversary in Washington.

The Republican lawmaker said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has not scheduled a vote on the Indo-US deal.

The impression has been that the House of Representatives will be taking up the legislation sometime next week before breaking off for its summer recess on July 28 and that the Senate could consider the same thereafter.

In the course of his address, Lugar stressed that while there are some in the State Department and the Indian Foreign Ministry who maintain that Congress changed the language of the agreement that was reached, the changes are "constructive" and hoped that even if they are "controversial", the leaders on the two sides will not delay.

Earlier, in his brief remarks to the Friendship Council, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska also made the point that the civilian nuclear deal may not be taken up by the Senate before the August recess.

"With the agenda the way it is, it might not happen" before the recess, Nelson said, stressing that this was only a case of scheduling and once the legislation gets through the House it should not run into any problem in the Senate.