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U.S.-Cuba Policy Legislative Update, January
2003
House of Representatives Action in 2002 The year
2002 was an unprecedented year for action in the House of Representatives
in support of measures to ease the embargo on Cuba:
·
Formation of the House Cuba
Working Group, a bipartisan body currently made up of 22 Democratic
Members of Congress and 22 Republican Members who support easing or
ending the U.S. embargo against Cuba (list attached);
·
Successful action on four
amendments regarding Cuba: (1) Passed three amendments on the Fiscal
Year 2003 Treasury-Postal Appropriations bill which would de-fund
the travel ban (by a vote of 262-167), would
de-fund enforcement
of remaining restrictions on agricultural sales to Cuba (voice
vote), and would de-fund enforcement of any limits on the amount of
remittances that can be sent to Cuba (251-177); (2) Defeated an amendment on the Treasury bill which would have tied easing
the embargo to Presidential certification that Cuba is not involved
in international terrorism (247-182);
·
Progress on a more overarching
amendment that would have ended funding for enforcement of the entire
embargo; this amendment was defeated by a slim vote of 204-226, only
14 votes shy of the number needed to pass.
Unfortunately,
the expiration of the legislative calendar in November led to the
result that 11 out of 13 FY2003 appropriations bills were left unfinished,
including the bill containing the Cuba language.
A Continuing Resolution (CR) was passed to continue current
FY2002 spending programs into January.
Congress is currently writing a single “omnibus” appropriations
bill that will include all unfinished spending bills.
This bill will likely remove all language that is controversial
or is not essential to day-to-day operations of the government.
None of the Cuba amendments is expected to be included in the
final package.
Senate Status of Cuba Policy Debate in 2002 Two provisions
to ease the embargo were addressed, but not voted on, in the Senate
in 2002:
These two
provisions suffered the same fate as the successful House amendments.
Therefore, after major successes in 2002, little concrete progress
resulted, due to the backlog of legislation and to the efforts of
the Republican leadership and the Cuban-American Members of Congress. In previous
years, the Senate has demonstrated its support of food and medical
sales to Cuba with a majority of 70 votes to 28.
Most recently, in January 2002 the Senate defeated (by a vote
of 61-33) an effort on the Farm Bill to condition private financing
of agricultural sales to Cuba on presidential certification that Cuba
was not involved in supporting international terrorism, something
President Bush is most certainly not going to do.
Yet, the arguments for keeping Cuba on the State Department’s
list of “terrorist” nations are weak and readily countered.
For more information on this issue, please see www.ciponline.org.
Prospects for Policy Action in 2003 Both Houses
of Congress have repeatedly demonstrated strong bipartisan majority
support for efforts to ease the embargo on Cuba, particularly for
efforts to end the ban on travel and to end remaining restrictions
on agricultural sales. Progress on these efforts is expected to gain
momentum in 2003, despite opposition from a hard-line Cuban-American
population in south Florida, and despite the Bush Administration’s
and Republican Congressional leadership’s opposition to the will of
Congress and of the American people regarding Cuba policy.
But your help is needed.
Please see other materials in this packet to learn what you
can do to assist the efforts to end the trade and travel embargo against
Cuba.
The House
of Representatives Cuba Working Group will continue its coordinated
efforts to ease the embargo. The
Senate and House will both see the introduction of a comprehensive
bill to move significantly toward ending the embargo.
Members of Congress will be asked to become co-sponsors of
this legislation in early 2003. Efforts
will continue to add provisions to ease the embargo to appropriations
bills whenever possible; these amendments will address remaining restrictions
on agricultural sales, travel, remittances, and other aspects of the
embargo. A freestanding bill
will likely be introduced in the House to set a date to end the destructive
Helms-Burton law from 1996 that further tightened the embargo.
Ending the travel ban, and ending the remaining restrictions on agricultural sales are common-sense measures that the Congress supports, as does a majority of the American people. Cutting off trade and travel to Cuba is hurting the United States, as well as Cuba. Allowing trade will benefit American farmers and exporters. Travel to Cuba by American citizens will create additional demand in Cuba for American products. Allowing Americans to travel freely to Cuba will promote contact between U.S. and Cuban citizens. Engagement through trade, travel, and genuine people-to-people relations is an approach that will benefit American political and economic interests, and will have a more constructive impact on Cuba itself.
FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION:
See www.CubaCentral.com
to sign a petition to the President to end the trade and travel embargo. Call your representative and senators to urge
their support in ending the embargo against Cuba for the benefit of
American farmers. See other
materials in this packet for further actions and contact information.
The House of Representatives Cuba Working
Group
(Representative, State, District)
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