Washington Matters
Don't Buy Your Ticket to Cuba Just Yet
By Andrew C. Schneider, Associate Editor, The Kiplinger Letter
April 10, 2009
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Looking forward to Congress lifting the ban on travel to Cuba? Well, don't make plans yet. It's likely to happen, but not as soon as you think...unless you're a Cuban-American with family on the island.
Congress won't rush to end the 46-year-old embargo on American visits to the island (minus a brief lifting by President Carter), despite predictions to the contrary. Supporters of allowing travel include President Obama, the Congressional Black Caucus and many others, but the powerful Cuban-American lobby is dead set against it, and it has the backing of Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada and the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Robert Menendez of New Jersey.
Most lawmakers feel a fight is more trouble than it's worth. Instead, Obama will crack open the door with an order allowing unlimited travel to the island by all Cuban-Americans who want to visit family members back home. That short-term fix will prove a big long-term headache as the government tries to adopt different policies for different ethnic groups. The Treasury Department, which is responsible for enforcing sanctions on Cuba, will have to decide just who qualifies as Cuban-American and who has family to visit. The resulting chaos will increase pressure on Congress to act, but it will take awhile (and maybe another election cycle).
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Reader Comments (1)
Posted by: John McAuliff at 04/10/2009 09:26:54 AM
Does it matter that 2/3 of Americans, and a like number of Cuban Americans, want to end all restrictions on travel--not to mention virtually every leading newspaper? Sen. Reid has his Las Vegas Cuban American donors to attend to, but he also has to oblige a significant majority of his caucus. Sen. Menendez damaged his credibility, as reported in the Washington Post, by a one hour rant on the Senate floor, holding up the Appropriations Omnibus for several days, and putting an anonymous (sic) freeze on the President's two top science appointees.