Conference Report On H.R. 5682, Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act Of 2006
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the rule, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 5682) to exempt from certain requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 a proposed nuclear agreement for cooperation with India. Mr. Speaker, I ask…
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the rule, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 5682) to exempt from certain requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 a proposed nuclear agreement for cooperation with India.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the conference report to H.R. 5682.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the President has said that legislation to permit the establishment of civil nuclear trade with India is essential to establishing a new global partnership between the United States and India. The conference report before this House is the product of more than a year of effort by Members and staff of the House International Relations Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It is based on the separate bills passed overwhelmingly in the House and the Senate and preserves the key provisions of both.
The conferees believe that this report represents a judicious balancing of competing priorities that encompass a broad range of subjects from U.S. policy in South Asia to the highly technical and complex world of nuclear export licenses. It is the product of months of discussions with the administration regarding virtually every section, and the conferees have gone to great lengths to accommodate the administration on its issues of concern.
I would like to express my appreciation for the cooperation of the Committee on Science, the Judiciary, Energy, Government Reform, Armed Services and Rules in helping expedite
the consideration of this conference report. Their cooperation should not be interpreted as having any impact on their rights under the jurisdictional rules and precedents of the House.
I insert for the Record some correspondence related to this issue.
Committee on Energy and Commerce,
Washington, DC, December 5, 2006.
Hon. Henry J. Hyde,
Chairman, Committee on International Relations, House of
Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Hyde: I write concerning H.R. 5682, the Henry
J. Hyde United States and India Nuclear Cooperation Promotion
Act of 2006, as amended. As you know, the Committee on Energy
and Commerce has jurisdiction over Title II of the amended
text.
I recognize your desire to bring this legislation before
the House in an expeditious manner. Accordingly, I will not
exercise my Committee's right to a full referral on the bill.
By agreeing to waive its consideration of the bill, however,
the Committee on Energy and Commerce does not waive its
jurisdiction over H.R. 5682.
Thank you for your attention to these matters.
Sincerely,
Joe Barton,
Chairman.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the incoming ranking Republican on the International Relations Committee, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen).
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Ackerman for a brilliant statement, as well as his cordial sentiments.
Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Royce), the chairman of the Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation, who has an awful lot to do with the ultimate product that we are voting on today.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I would ask Mr. Lantos if he needs some additional time.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), if that will help, for purposes of control.
Mr. Speaker, I believe I have the right to close the debate, so I am reserving my time. I have no further requests, so I will close.
Mr. Speaker, the arguments that have been made so ably by the gentleman from Massachusetts have been anticipated and, in my judgment, well met by Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Lantos, Mr. Crowley, Ms. Ros- Lehtinen, Mr. Royce, and others, so I will not consume the few moments we have left repeating them; suffice to say this is an excellent step forward. It recognizes the reality, the nuclear reality of India, and is a very progressive step. It is the conference report of the House bill and the Senate bill, both of which passed overwhelmingly, and so it is truly bipartisan and is something that ought to pass.
I would like to take this final opportunity to express, inadequately, I am afraid, my respect and admiration for Mr. Lantos. I congratulate the Democratic Party in selecting him to head the International Relations Committee, because foreign policy is going to be critical in the coming months and the coming years, and the Congress could not be in better hands in that area than it is with Mr. Lantos as chairman of the committee. He brings a grasp of history that is unequaled because he has lived through so much of it, as well as studied with high scholarship. So it is an honor and privilege and experience and an adventure to have served with him for so long and learned so much about foreign policy at his hand.
I also want to say the staffs, both the Democratic and Republican staffs, are superior people.
In Camelot, King Arthur once said we are all of us tiny drops in a vast ocean, but some of them sparkle. Well, we have a lot of sparklers who are staffs of both Republicans and Democrats. Mr. Mooney, Tom Mooney, who is not only my friend and my chief of staff, but a brilliant administrator and student of foreign policy, has been especially helpful. I couldn't begin to express my appreciation to him.
Horace Mann, a great educator, once said a man should be ashamed to die until he has won some victory for humanity. I think every Member of Congress attains a victory for humanity every time Congress is in session and a vote is cast. Democracy is more than simply a set of rules as to how we elect people or how we litigate against each other; it ascribes individual worth to every human being, every member of the human family, and you in Congress are custodians of democracy. That is a very high calling.
To be in Washington as a representative of well over half a million people and to stand in the shadow of Jefferson and Lincoln and Washington is no small thing. I am proud to have had the honor and the privilege to serve with so many people who are so dedicated to the success and the flourishing of this great country.
I thank God for each one of you. My wish is that you all live to be a thousand years old and the last voice you hear will be mine.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.