Senate vote on N-deal possible tomorrow

Asking his colleagues to drop their objections to the Indo-US nuclear deal, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the landmark agreement could be brought to a vote in his Chamber, possibly as early as tomorrow.

"What are we going to do on Monday? We may have to have a vote on the defence authorisation bill.... We've got to do the defence authorisation bill, we have to do Amtrak. We have to do the nuclear treaty with India," Reid said on the Senate floor yesterday before the approval of the legislation in the US House of Representatives.

He also urged his colleagues in the Senate to drop their objections to the deal.

The Senate Majority Leader's appeal came against the backdrop of information that it is not a lone Senator who has placed a "hold" on the movement of the Bill of Approval of the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement in the Senate.

Sources have told PTI that the number of Senators who have placed a "hold" could be as high as five.

Senior Republican sources have immediately distanced themselves from the "hold", pointing to the fact that no lawmaker in the Senate from the Grand Old Party has stood in the way since the time of the Hyde Act in 2006.

Reid said: "We're taking a look at, a package of bills. Each one of those is something we can complete next week. For people who are concerned about the India nuclear agreement -- and there are several Senators that have concerns about that -- all we would be doing is running out the time."