'No Cigar' to Cuba Measure?

PUBLICADO PARA HOY 19 DE SEPTIEMBRE


According to Congressional Quarterly:

Election-Minded Democrats Say 'No Cigar' to Cuba Measure

A last-ditch, business-backed push to ease travel and trade restrictions on Cuba has run into heavy opposition from a number of influential Democrats warning of political fallout for party candidates in Florida and other states.

The dispute pits a loose alliance of liberal and farm-state lawmakers — led by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard L. Berman and Agriculture Chairman Collin C. Peterson — against staunch foes of Cuba such as New Jersey's Albio Sires, a Cuban-American, and Florida's Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Both are senior members of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

So far, Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to be resisting calls to bring the bill to the House floor before the Nov. 2 elections, though she said she remains open to moving it (HR 4645) this year. She stopped short of promising a floor vote. "We'll see," she said.

California's Berman said he is trying to line up votes so his committee can approve the bill and send it to the full House as soon as possible. Berman's panel is the last still to act on the bill. Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., whose committee also had jurisdiction, said he has ceded his panel's jurisdiction.

Minnesota's Peterson, whose Agriculture panel marked up the bill in June, said the measure is gaining momentum and has support from a wide variety of business groups, including the Chamber of Commerce. The chamber urged the Foreign Affairs Committee in a letter Aug. 24 to approve the bill and "end the unproductive preoccupation with an aging and moribund Communist regime."

The bill would end a ban on most travel to Cuba that was first put in place as part of an economic embargo by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. It also would end a requirement embedded in federal law (PL 106-387) that restricts some agricultural exports to Cuba.

But Sires said he and Wasserman Schultz have warned Democratic leaders the bill would anger Cuban-American voters and hurt the electoral prospects of Florida Democrats. "This is not something that you want to do now," Sires said Thursday.

Also pushing for swift House action is outgoing Sen. Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, among many grain-state lawmakers behind easing the trade requirements. "This is the time to eliminate the restrictions," he said.

But the legislation has been attacked by Robert Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who contends that its passage would help Cuban leaders extend a "reign of oppression and human rights violations."