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House panel to move forward on easing Cuba policy
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A House of Representatives panel will vote next week on a bill relaxing trade with and travel to Cuba, with Democratic supporters struggling to ease the restrictions before mid-term elections in which they risk losing their majority.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee placed the legislation on its calendar for a vote next Wednesday. But even if the committee approves it, getting the measure through Congress this year will be difficult with so little time and so much other work left for lawmakers to do.
If passed, the legislation would lift the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba and remove hurdles on food sales to the island.
A broad coalition of farm, business and human rights groups support the legislation as an important step toward ending the almost five-decade-old embargo on communist-led Cuba and promoting positive change there.
A Republican takeover of the House in November 2 elections, which many think is possible, would complicate chances for change next year because some senior Republicans oppose any loosening of the embargo.
But there are also some opponents of lifting the travel ban among the Democrats now in the majority in both the House and Senate, and this has helped to delay action on it until now.
The measure passed the House Agriculture Committee in June. If it passes the Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, it would go to the House floor, but probably not until an expected "lame duck" session after the November elections.
The bill would also have to pass the Senate. If it fails to clear any of these hurdles, lawmakers will have to start over from scratch in the new Congress.
President Barack Obama has said he wants to "recast" ties with Cuba, and last year renewed outreach efforts to the island. He eased limits on travel by separated family members and cash remittances by Cuban-Americans to their relatives.
U.S. advocates for better ties with Cuba hope he will go farther.
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; editing by Todd Eastham)
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1. Unconstitutional. All members of Congress swear an oath to protect and defend the US Constitution. The embargo violates the first, fifth, and fourteen amendments. Any Congressperson who vote for it is violating his or her oath.
2. Job destroying. University studies say that 60,000 jobs would be created by ending the embargo. My estimate is closer to 200,000. Cuba, if it were a US state, would be no. 7. If, say, Ohio were destroyed or embargoed, do you think ONLY 200,000 jobs would be lost in other states? LA just spent $111 million creating 55 jobs, or $2 million each. Ending the embargo would be equivalent to spending $400 billion in stimulus funds. If 90% of eligible voters of Cuban descent in Florida were in favor of the embargo, and agreed to pay for just this loss, we would be sending 500,000 of them a bill for $800,000 each. If Cuban Americans want extra say in US politics, they should pay the extra costs.
3. Deaths of Americans. Cuba has over 40 medicines that the US does not have. Michael Douglas, if he is smart, will go to Cuba to get his cancer treated. Cuba derives over $400 million a year from its unique biotech/pharmaceuticals, but not any from the US. My own estimate is that tens of thousands of Americans die from lack of access to Cuba’s medicines and treatments, deaths that should be paid for by the pro-embargo lobby.
4. Rogue Superpower – 18 years in a row Cuba has humiliated the US in UN votes. The last one, Oct. 2009, was 187 to 3. Only Israel (which trades with Cuba) and Palau (fewer people than the homeless around me) voted with the US. No Latin American, African, European, or Asian country (unless you count Israel as Asian) voted with the US. Not one.
I can come up with over 100 reasons. If the Foreign Affairs committee can’t figure out that this policy hurts US foreign stature, then they should resign.
The irony is that if Republicans win (and I am a Republican) that the chair of the committee will be a person with no foreign policy successes, other than hating Castro.
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