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AfroCubaWeb
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Fight to keep Cuban American travel
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| Their visits are still on! This just in from our friends at LAWG: First, let's take a moment to exhale.... ---------------------------------------------------- Yesterday, President Obama and his staff in the White House released a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) that provided Congress with the Executive Office's views on H.R. 2434, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2012. This is the appropriations bill that was approved by the House Appropriations Committee on June 23rd, which included Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart's (R-FL-21) amendment that intends to restrict Cuban-American family travel and remittances to Cuba. In the SAP, the White House says: "The Administration strongly opposes a number of provisions in this bill. If the President is presented with a bill that undermines either the Affordable Care Act of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protections Act through funding limits or other restrictions, or reverses current policies on Cuba, his senior advisors would recommend a veto." As our friends at the Havana Note explain, "It is customary for an administration to send to Congress a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) after committee consideration and before a floor vote, with warnings over provisions the administration wants to see removed. How do you ensure a provision's removal? Threaten to veto the bill over it. No committee chairman wants to see his bill go down over just one provision in it, so the tactic usually works." Although we may argue that it's equally important, for our issue of travel to Cuba to be mentioned in the same sentence as hot-button items like, health care and Wall Street reform, this SAP signifies a monumental step for the White House. U.S. policy towards Cuba has routinely been dubbed as a low-priority issue by previous Administrations and Congress. But since Obama delivered upon his campaign promise to allow unrestricted family travel to Cuba in 2009, this move by Diaz-Balart is interpreted as a challenge to the White House's Cuba policy. Over 600 of YOU from Miami responded to an ad placed in El Nuevo Herald that encouraged Cuban Americans to send letters to the President expressing concerns for maintaining the current policy on family travel to Cuba. Your voices were heard. This SAP explicitly defends Obama's forward-looking policy towards Cuba, and that is the jaw-dropper here. If Congress was unsure about how the President felt about revisions to his policy on family travel to Cuba, this statement says it all, "if it's there, expect a veto." The fight against this bill is not yet over, but with the big boss giving fair warning, this amendment is one step closer to being thrown out. Best, The LAWG Cuba Team (Mavis, Emily and Andrew) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- So that's the good news from Mavis, Emily and Andrew. We can take a moment to breathe, but I'd also say that quick follow up phone calls or emails are in order: Call or email your Representative in the House and both your Senators. Let them know that you are aware of the President's SAP, that you expect no argument or resistance, and that you also expect full travel rights to Cuba, for all, pronto. Call our President. Thank him for doing the right thing with this SAP and let him know you expect him to stick to it and to move forward. Let him know that the next steps should be to ensure freedom of travel for all (and, if you're so inclined, healthcare for all, a balanced budget, full funding for our cities and towns rather than for the military, and peace for our children and grandchildren -- in our lifetime) You can find the names and contact information for Representatives, Senators and the President at a single website: www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml If you have trouble finding what you need on this website, here are others more specific (click to go to link): |
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As you know, on June 23, the House Appropriations Committee voted 27 to 21 to include in the FY 2012 Financial Services Appropriations bill an amendment rescinding the Obama measures to ensure that Cuban Americans could travel regularly to see their families and could send remittances to help them through difficult times. If you have trouble finding what you need on this website, here are others more specific (click to go to link): |
Cuba
Travel Restrictions in the Spotlight in Brooklyn and Beyond 7/5/2011 Americas
Quarterly: "Opponents of ending travel restrictions to Cuba have long
relied on the ambivalence of everyday voters for whom—under the decades-long
policy of isolation—visiting the island has never been a practical
possibility. For much of the past five decades, most Americans have never
questioned the rationale for restricting travel. But, as academic and cultural
ties grow, thousands more are bound to ponder that very question. Diaz-Balart
and others will find it increasingly difficult to come up with convincing
answers—and that might be the reason for all the fuss."
US Congressman
Diaz-Balart Seeks to Punish Cuban-Americans 6/24/2011 Havana
Times: "Puerto Rican legislator Rep. Serrano warned that we should not
be trying to define what constitutes “family” because the scope varies among
different ethnic groups and Virginia Democrat Rep. Moran decried the amendment
as un-American and “totalitarian”… Florida Rep. Diaz-Balart said that
remittances have become a huge cash windfall for the Cuban government, ignoring
the fact that the money is helping the Cuban people to become less economically
dependent on the government and that much of it has gone toward starting up
small businesses."
United
States Cuba Policy: Cuba Travel? You Are Not Serious 6/24/2011 United
States Cuba Policy & Business Blog: "Now here is the good news.
There are more of us than there are of them. It is time to prove it in votes and
money. What happened in the House Appropriations committee can and will likely
be stopped. Only if you choose to finally get serious on this issue, follow all
the rules of the political game, and play to win."
House
Appropriation Committee Approves Restriction of Travel to Cuba through the Power
of the Purse Strings 6/23/2011 Common Ground Education and
Travel: "Diaz-Balart (R-FL) The amendment tightens regulations on
family travel and remittances to Cuba, returning these policies to those that
were in place during the Bush Administration… Flake (R-AZ) The amendment
inserts report language regarding the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign
Asset Control (OFAC), related to Cuban Asset Control regulations. The amendment
directs the office to provide a report on pending license applications related
to education exchanges."
Family
travel to Cuba reverts to cruel Bush-era regs 6/23/2011 LAWG: "Today
the House Appropriations Committee voted in favor of an amendment, put forth by
Representative Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida (R-FL 21st), to the FY 2012
Financial Services Appropriations bill. This amendment, which passed by voice
vote, rescinds changes that President Obama made in 2009 to Cuban-American
family travel and remittances regulations. If this amendment were to become law,
Cuban Americans would only be permitted to visit their families in Cuba once
every three years, with a limited definition of what constitutes family, and
with no humanitarian exceptions. Cuban Americans would also be limited in what
they could send in remittances to Cuba."
Cuba's Plantocracy: Cuban American business and terrorism
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