Congressional and administration sources were confident on Wednesday night that a procedural snag in the form of a
legislative tactic used by House Majority Leader, Republican John Boehner of Ohio would be resolved on Thursday morning, and the compromise legislation worked out by the House-Senate conference committee to facilitate the US-India civilian nuclear agreeement would be approved by both chambers by Thursday night at the latest before the Congress adjourns.
The House and Senate conferees had wrapped things up and completed their work on the compromise legislation and were ready to file it with the House Rules Committee as part of the procedure when Boehner -- one of the Republican House conferees had put a hold on the bill and said he intended to tag on a piece of unrelated legislation to this bill, which is a legislative maneuver used in a lame-duck session to push through amendments by piggy-backing them on larger bills that are poised for approval by the House and Senate.
There was speculation that Boehner had either tried to tag on an immigration provision or an amendment to grant Vietnam permanent normal trade relations, but that the Democrats had flatly refused and said they wanted this conference committee bill to be nothing but legislation that dealt only with the US-India civilian nuclear agreement.
Administration sources told
rediff.com that the White House too -- that had been expecting the conference bill to clear both the House and Senate on Wednesday -- had made clear to Boehner that nothing should be attached to the US-India nuclear bill and got the message across that "we cannot lose this bill because of any attachments."
They said the White House had urged him to immediately remove his hold and to allow it to be voted on in the House so that it can then be also adopted by the Senate and sent to the president's desk for signature.
Congressional sources said that Boehner was also being urged by his Republican colleagues in the Senate to release his hold and let the bill be voted on as quickly as possible so that it can be sent to the president for signature.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, said on Tuesday that he had telephoned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and assured him that India's concerns over certain amendments in the bill would be alleviated and that the legislation would certainly be completed before Congress adjourns.
"I spoke with Indian