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Hyde and Lantos had on Wednesday morning sent out a Dear John letter, urging members of the US House of Representatives to defeat the amendments and warning that failure to do so would involve the breakdown of the agreement.
The Sherman amendment was defeated 268-155, while the Berman amendment was defeated 241-184.
A curious fact however has emerged: Democrats en masse appear to be against the bill as it stands. Thus, 123 Democrats voted in favour of the Sherman bill while only 71 opposed it. Against that, 25 Republicans voted in favour of the Sherman bill with 200 voting against. This division was noticed on the Berman bill as well. Democrats voted 146 for and 52 against, while Republicans voted 37 for and 189 against.
In sum, both bills were defeated despite the best efforts of a sizeable majority of the Democratic party. Continuing the trend of apparent Democratic opposition to the bill, Congressman Ed Markey has now moved to recommit the bill to the House International Relations Committee 'with instructions'.
Such a motion seeks to avoid a vote on the floor of the House and send the bill back to the committee, for more hearings.
The debate on this motion is ongoing, and already it is apparent that the Democrats, surprisingly including Tom Lantos, are in favour of the Markey motion while the Republicans are en masse arguing against it.
Such a motion seeks to avoid a floor vote and send the bill back to the House International Relations Committee, for more hearings and another mark-up. The debate on this motion is ongoing, and already it is apparent that Democrats, surprisingly including Tom Lantos, are in favour of the Markey motion while the Republicans are en masse arguing against it.
The instructions Markey -- a fierce opponent of nuclear proliferation -- wanted to attach to the bill and send back to Committee was in the shape of an amendment adding a new paragraph, which states that the President must certify that India is fully and actively participating in US efforts to dissuade, isolate, and, if necessary, sanction and contain Iran for its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear weapons capability (including the capability to enrich or process nuclear materials), and the means to deliver weapons of mass destruction.