Courtesy: India West, By VASANTHA ARORA WASHINGTON: Representative Dan Burton, Rind one of the most persistent Critics of India in the House, has failed in his bid to chair the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.

The Republican leadership, now in power in the House after four decades of Democratic domination, has renamed the House Foreign Affairs Committee as the Committee on International Relations; the committee will be chaired by Rep Benjamin A. Gilman, RN.Y. with Doug Bereuter, R Neb., as the designated vice chairman. It was Bereuter who defeated Burt onto become the chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, which also deals with India and Pakistan. Congressional sources said that Burton lost the Asia subcommittee post, despite his aggressive bid for it because Bereuter is a more senior congressman and exercised his prerogative to head the committee.

Bereuter said in a statement that he decided to chair the subcommittee because Asian and Pacific nations comprise Nebraska’s number one market for exports. Bereuter will also serve on the International Relations

Bereuter, who has served in Congress since he was first elected in November 1978, said that the Pacific Rim is the largest and fastest growing region in the world for U.S. agricultural exports. “By the year 2000, markets in Asia’s Pacific Rim countries could account for 50 percent of total U.S. agricultural exports.”

Bereuter has broad experience, as a state legislator, businessman, veteran, college educator, urban planner and state agency administrator. He has become increasingly involved in international affairs and has taken an active role in promoting U.S. exports.

The other seven Republican members of the Asia and the Pacific subcommittee are: Edward Royce, Dana Rohrabacher, Jay Kim, all of California; Jim Leach, Towa Burton, Indiana; Don Manzullo, Illinois, and Mark Sanford, S.C.

The Democrats have not named any members yet to the subcommittee and they are not expected to make their selections before Jan. 5.

Article extracted from this publication >>  January 6, 1995