Tuesday, February 18, 2003

 

Contact: Brian Alexander; Tel: (202) 321-CUBA (2822); Email: alexander@cubafoundation.org

www.cubafoundation.org

        

EMBARGO UPDATE:

EFFORT TO EASE CUBAN EMBARGO STRIPPED FROM SPENDING BILL AS CONGRESSIONAL CONTEST OVER CUBA GETS UNDERWAY

               

Five legislative provisions that had the support of anti-embargo members of the House and Senate were stripped from FY2003 Omnibus Spending Bill, which passed Congress on February 13.  Removal of the provisions came due to pressures from the House leadership and a veto threat from the White House, even though a majority of Republican and Democratic lawmakers favor loosening sanctions against Cuba.

  

Three of the stripped provisions, originally passed by Congress in July 2002, would have made it easier for Americans to travel to Cuba, send remittances to friends and family in Cuba, and finance the sale of farm products to Cuba. (“Embargo Update,” August 5, 2002, at: www.cubafoundation.org/congress.html.)  A separate provision to provide additional funds for cooperation with Cuba on counternarcotics was also dropped, as was a provision that would have imposed greater accountability by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in the process of issuing licenses for Americans to travel to Cuba.  All had been included in the spending bill as Congress took up the measure in January 2003, but were stripped from the bill before its final passage. 

   

Pressures from the House Congressional leadership and a veto threat from the White House over the Cuba language led the spending bill’s negotiators to drop all of the Cuba language.  Parliamentary rules allow a handful of lawmakers in the Congressional leadership to exert disproportionate influence over the fate of legislation, even if this means killing provisions supported by the majority, as was the case regarding the Cuba language, which had broad, bipartisan support.

   

The omission of all five Cuba provisions sets the stage for the upcoming battle over the Cuban embargo in 2003.  Analyses by the Cuba Policy Foundation indicate that the majority of Senators and Representatives support easing travel, trade and other U.S. sanctions against Cuba.  Moreover, public opinion polls of the American people indicate strong support for lifting the travel ban and expanding trade opportunities in Cuba.  Even Cuban-Americans in South Florida increasingly support a new approach toward the island.  However, President Bush and the House Leadership oppose efforts to ease the embargo. 

   

A key question regarding the Cuban embargo, which remains unanswered, is how long can a handful of Congressional lawmakers and the President continue to oppose the majority sentiment of the Congress and the American people? With many Republicans seeking an easing of the embargo, the Congressional leadership and the Administration will feel internal pressures from within the Republican party for a policy shift, in addition to pressures coming from Democrats and the American public.  Whether these pressures are sufficient to lead to an easing of the embargo will be a pivotal issue in the Cuba debate during 2003.

   

NEW LEGISLATION TO LIFT EMBARGO:  Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Chuck Hagel (R-NB) have introduced a bill to lift the Cuban embargo.  The “Free Trade with Cuba Act” (S. 403), introduced on February 13, would remove restrictions on trade with Cuba and lift the travel ban.  In his speech to introduce the bill on the Senate floor, Senator Baucus stated, ” It is time to get real about promoting freedom and democracy. It is time to get real about economic expansion. It is time to end the embargo.” 

 

Congress is set to undertake numerous initiatives to ease the embargo in 2003 in actions that will be led by the bipartisan House Cuba Working Group and key Republican and Democratic Senate offices.  In addition to the Baucus-Hagel bill, movement in 2003 by the Congress against the embargo will include measures such as the following:

 

 

Many of these measures are spelled out in the nine-point legislative agenda of the House Cuba Working Group, issued in May of 2002.  For more information on the House Cuba Working Group, please visit www.cubafoundation.org/congress.html.

   

For more information, please contact the Cuba Policy Foundation.

  

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