Right To Travel Campaign

Two More suggestions for action re Cuba travel bills
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 12:39:07 -0800 (PST)

1) Dear Cuba Policy Advocates,
A quick email to let you know where we stand and urge you to continue to pressure Congress. The Cuba travel amendment is in the conference committee.

When the conference committee will end is unclear, but your calls, faxes and emails are invaluable right now, as members are surely talking about it.

We spoke to one Republican staffer last week who said that the administration and leadership are lobbying heavily against retaining the Cuba travel provision. Your voices are critical to counter their lobbying.

Please continue to call, fax or email expressions of your support for the amendment to the senators and representatives listed below (if you live in their district/state). If you don't live in their district or state, please contact friends or relatives who do, and urge them to call or email.
Keep up the good work!

Sincerely,
Mavis Anderson
Philip Schmidt
Latin America Working Group

Sample message (phone):

"As a constituent, I urge you to stand up for the Cuba travel amendment to the Transportation /Treasury bill. The amendment, which passed both House and Senate with majority votes, reflects the wishes of Congress and the American people. Please stand fast against leadership and White House pressure to ignore those wishes."

(SAMPLE Letter)

The Honorable ________________
Dear (Senator or Representative) _____________

For the first time, the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have both adopted legislation to lift the ban on travel by Americans to Cuba (as part of the Treasury-Transportation Appropriations bill).

I urge you to stand up to the Congressional leadership and refuse to let them drop the Cuba travel language from the final bill that is sent by Congress to President Bush. Because the House and Senate passed identical language, dropping the language would be contravening the will and the rules of Congress.

U.S. policy of isolating Cuba, economically and diplomatically, has been a failure for decades. The ban on travel by Americans to Cuba restricts our constitutional right to travel where we wish, and it limits very important contacts and opportunities for commerce between Americans and Cubans.
I urge you to stand strong, to support freedom for Americans and Cubans, and to fight to preserve the language permitting travel by Americans to Cuba.

Sincerely,
Name
Address
--------------------------
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE LIST
Senator/Address <------------- State/Party <--- Phone <-------- 
Fax <-------

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Latin America Working Group
Action at home for just policies abroad www.lawg.org
 
* * * * * * * ** * * * * * ** * * * * * ** * * * * * ** * * * * * ** * * * * * ** * * * * * ** * * * * * *
 
2) a legislative update from ifco/pastors for peace --
 
THE CUBA TRAVEL AMENDMENT:
NOWS THE TIME TO CALL CONGRESS!!!
 
As you know, both the Senate and the House have approved an amendment to the Transportation and Treasury Appropriations Bill which would cut off all funding for enforcement of the blockade against travel to Cuba. The strong majority vote in both houses of Congress, and the strength of the vote among Republicans as well as Democrats, demonstrates clearly that the sense of the Congress is very much in favor of ending travel restrictions to Cuba.
 
This week the Transportation and Treasury Appropriations Bill is going to conference committee,where representatives of the House and Senate will work together to reconcile
differences in the language between the House and Senate versions of particular amendments. The conference committee will produce a final version of the bill, which will go to the White House for the President’s signature.
 
Bush has already stated that he will veto any bill that does away with Cuba travel restrictions. And some members of the right-wing House Republican leadership, sensitive to that veto threat, are catering to Bush by trying to eliminate the Cuba travel amendment from the appropriations bill while its still in the conference committee, before it goes to the White House.
 
We see two big problems with this attempt to cut out the Cuba travel amendment. One, of course, is that we are passionately in favor of lifting restrictions on travel to Cuba. The
other is that cutting out the Cuba travel amendment is against the rules of Congress; it violates the democratic process by which our Congress is supposed to be governed.
 
You see, according to the rules of Congress, the conference committee is only supposed to negotiate the parts of a bill where the House and Senate versions differ. If the House and Senate pass identical versions of an amendment, its assumed that they agree on it, and the rules say its supposed to stay in place in the final version of the bill. The fact that the House and Senate intentionally passed identical versions of the amendment means that they wanted it to stay in. They didn't want it to meet the fate of other recent amendments to lessen Cuba sanctions on trade and travel where, at the last minute, Tom DeLay and Lincoln Diaz-Balart managed to cripple or to disappear amendments which had been supported by both houses of Congress, just because they had to do with changes in US/Cuba policy.
 
We also dont like the idea that Congress would automatically fold on the issue of Cuba travel or on any issue -- just because Bush has threatened a veto. Remember the concept of checks and balances? Now more than ever, we need the Congress to show some backbone and resist the Bush agenda and we think this amendment is a good place for them to start.
 
An AP story late last week suggested that this issue was already a done deal -- that the Republicans might already have cut the Cuba amendment from the appropriations bill. BUT THIS IS NOT YET TRUE: the conference committee is just starting to meet, and, as far as we
can tell, the issue is still very much alive.
 
 
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW IS TO CONTACT THE
CONFEREES,THE MEMBERS OF THE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE, who are listed below.
Let them know two things:
 
1) that you agree with the strong majority of both houses ofCongress
that travel restrictions to Cuba should be lifted; and

2) that you insist that the conference committee must follow the rules of Congress; that it must be fair and abide by democratic process and that therefore the Cuba travel amendment must not be cut from the Transportation and Treasury Appropriations bill.
 
Its also important that word get back to the Congressional leadership that we insist on fair play; that they cant break the rules they were elected to follow; and that we want an end to Cuba travel restrictions! So after you've reached out to the conferees, call your own senators and representative. Let them know that you care about whets happening in Congress concerning the Cuba issue, that you care about the rules of democratic process, and that you want the Cuba travel amendment to stay in the bill and go to the Presidents desk.
 
Thanks for the good energy you bring to this important fight! Well do our best to keep you updated as the situation develops.
 
Capitol switchboard: 202/225-3121
Any questions? Call Ellen Bernstein at IFCO, 212/926-5757.
 
 
MEMBERS OF THE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE FOR THE
TRANSPORTATION AND
TREASURY APPROPRIATIONS BILL:
 
(Participants in the conference committee include the chairs and the
ranking Democrats (the minority leaders) of the full Appropriations Committee, along with the chairs and certain members of the specific subcommittee. Chairs and vice-chairs are noted; all other conferees listed are regular members of the Transportation and Treasury Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committees in the House or the Senate.)
 
ON THE SENATE SIDE:
REPUBLICANS:
Ted Stevens (R-AK), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee
Richard Shelby (R-AL), chair of the Transportation/Treasury
Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee
Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Kit Bond (R-MO)
Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO)
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
Mike De Wine (R-OH)
Sam Brownback (R-KS)
 
DEMOCRATS:
Robert Byrd (D-WV), Ranking Democrat, Senate Appropriations
Committee
Patty Murray (D-WA), Ranking Democrat, Transportation/Treasury
Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Harry Reid (D-KS)
Jon Kohl (D-AZ)
Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
 
 
ON THE HOUSE SIDE:
REPUBLICANS:
Bill Young (R-FL), chair of the House Appropriations Committee
Ernest Istook (R-OK), chair, Transportation/Treasury
subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee
Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), vice chair of the subcommittee
Frank Wolf (R-VA)
Ron Lewis (R-KY)
Harold Rogers (R-KY)
Anne Northup (R-KY)
Robert Aderholt (R-AL)
John Sweeney (R-NY)
John Culberson (R-TX)
 
DEMOCRATS:
John Olver (D-MA), Ranking Democrat, House
Transportation/Treasury
Subcommittee
Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
Ed Pastor (D-AZ)
Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI)
James Clyburn (D-SC)
Steven Rothman (D-NJ)
 
IFCO/Pastors for Peace
402 W 145th Street, New York City, NY 10031
212-926-5757; fax: 212-926-5842; email: ifco@igc.org
web: http://www.ifconews.org

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From: "Compañero" <companyero@mindspring.com
To: companyero@mindspring.com

GRACIAS, Delvis Fernandez for CAAEF