The bill appeared to be the latest in a patriotic wave of perceived anti-foreign measures to go before the Duma, the lower house of parliament.
He supported extending the Voting Rights Act in 1981, championed many foreign aid measures and family leave legislation, and backed Mr. Clinton over a ban on assault weapons.
The Supreme Court's ruling against the Massachusetts law, which largely barred the state government from doing business with companies that trade with Myanmar, was narrow enough that it left room for states and cities to pass such home-grown foreign policy measures, Mr. Billenness said.
Fiscal stimulus and election spending, along with monetary, credit and foreign exchange measures since late 2008, have sustained private demand and financing needs, despite tight external credit.
Block-group level race, ethnicity and foreign birth measures attenuated observed associations in the lowest SEP quartile, and may indicate that the effect of neighborhood disadvantage does not dominate that of population demographic characteristics in that area.
That is, they vote their districts if their constituents have an interest, and a trade bill is a singular foreign policy measure because the question of jobs gained and lost commands attention from lawmakers and constituents ordinarily not much concerned about the rest of the world.
By staking his personal prestige on success of the foreign aid measure, he is taking a political gamble.
The limitations had been attached to the foreign aid measure last year as part of a one-year compromise worked out by the White House and Congressional Republicans to end a stalemate over the federal budget.
Mr. Mehta said the decision by Congress Party leaders to push aside the foreign retail measure had most likely been linked to an important election early next year in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
He also was critical of numerous foreign-policy measures that related to the conduct of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he voted against laws that increased the police powers of the government.
When Mr. Singh's cabinet approved the foreign retail measure on Nov. 24, business groups and many economists hailed the decision as a bold reform that would benefit consumers and farmers while providing a much-needed jolt to the Indian economy.
