The U.S. House of Representatives has proposed a bill that seeks to extend by two years the South Korea-U.S. bilateral atomic energy agreement. 

According to sources in Congress Thursday, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Edward Royce submitted the bill that aims to extend the current deal set to expire next March. The bill authorizes U.S. President Barack Obama to extend the term of the accord on the peaceful use of atomic energy until March 2016. 

In the bill, Royce said the extended term of the agreement must not go beyond March 19th, 2016. 

The bill is likely to be passed smoothly in Congress as it is actively backed by senior members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 

Seoul and Washington held several rounds of negotiations on revising their atomic energy accord but failed to agree on the sticking point of whether to allow South Korea to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. The two countries agreed instead to an extension of the atomic energy agreement. Such an agreement came shortly before the South Korea-U.S. summit held in late April.