[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2045 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2045

    To designate the area between the intersections of 16th Street, 
 Northwest and Fuller Street, Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest and 
   Euclid Street, Northwest in Washington, District of Columbia, as 
                         ``Oswaldo Paya Way''.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 14, 2021

Mr. Cruz (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Cardin, and Mr. Scott 
  of Florida) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To designate the area between the intersections of 16th Street, 
 Northwest and Fuller Street, Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest and 
   Euclid Street, Northwest in Washington, District of Columbia, as 
                         ``Oswaldo Paya Way''.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) the revolution led by Fidel Castro in Cuba in 1959 
        started 61 years of an ongoing dictatorship, systemic human 
        rights abuses, and a lack of basic freedom of press, religion, 
        assembly, and association that continue to this day under the 
        Communist rule of Raul Castro and his successor, Miguel Diaz-
        Canel;
            (2) Oswaldo Paya Sardinas was a Cuban political dissident 
        dedicated to promoting democratic freedoms and human rights in 
        Cuba;
            (3) the Communist Party of Cuba has always viewed that 
        commitment to democracy and freedom as a threat to the 
        existence of the Communist Party of Cuba;
            (4) on July 22, 2012, a violent car crash, widely believed 
        to have been carried out by the Castro regime, took the lives 
        of Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero, another dissident;
            (5) the official investigation into the crash has been 
        demonstrated to be compromised, and the Castro regime has 
        offered no plausible evidence of the innocence of the Castro 
        regime in the crash, leaving the circumstances of the death of 
        Oswaldo Paya unknown;
            (6) opposition by Oswaldo Paya to the Communist Party of 
        Cuba began at a young age, when he refused to become a member 
        of the Young Communist League as a primary school student, and 
        continued through high school, when he publicly criticized the 
        invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union;
            (7) the Communist Party of Cuba responded to the opposition 
        by Oswaldo Paya to the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet 
        Union by sending Oswaldo Paya to a labor camp for 3 years;
            (8) Oswaldo Paya forewent a chance to escape Cuba in the 
        1980 Mariel boatlift, deciding instead to continue the fight 
        for democracy in Cuba, saying, ``This is what I am supposed to 
        be, this is what I have to do.'';
            (9) by creating the Varela Project in 1998, Oswaldo Paya 
        demonstrated his staunch commitment to peacefully advocating 
        for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly for his fellow 
        Cubans;
            (10) in recognition of his determination for political 
        reforms through peaceful protests, Oswaldo Paya was awarded the 
        Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European 
        Parliament in 2002 and the W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award 
        from the National Democratic Institute for International 
        Affairs in 2003 and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by 
        former Czech President Vaclav Havel in 2005;
            (11) on April 11, 2018, the Senate unanimously passed S. 
        Res. 224, recognizing the sixth anniversary of the death of 
        Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, commemorating his legacy and commitment 
        to democratic values and principles, and calling on the Cuban 
        government to allow an impartial, third-party investigation 
        into the circumstances surrounding his death; and
            (12) renaming the street in front of the Embassy of Cuba in 
        the District of Columbia after Oswaldo Paya serves as an 
        expression of solidarity between the people of the United 
        States and the people of the Cuba, who are engaged in a long, 
        nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights.

SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF OSWALDO PAYA WAY.

    (a) Designation of Way.--
            (1) In general.--The area between the intersections of 16th 
        Street, Northwest and Fuller Street, Northwest and 16th Street, 
        Northwest and Euclid Street, Northwest in Washington, District 
        of Columbia, shall be known and designated as ``Oswaldo Paya 
        Way''.
            (2) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
        document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
        area referred to in paragraph (1) shall be deemed to be a 
        reference to Oswaldo Paya Way.
    (b) Designation of Address.--
            (1) Designation.--The address of 2630 16th Street, 
        Northwest, Washington, District of Columbia, shall be 
        redesignated as 2630 Oswaldo Paya Way.
            (2) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
        document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
        address referred to in paragraph (1) shall be deemed to be a 
        reference to 2630 Oswaldo Paya Way.
    (c) Signs.--The District of Columbia shall construct 2 street signs 
that shall--
            (1) contain the phrase ``Oswaldo Paya Way'';
            (2) be placed immediately above existing signs at the 
        intersections of 16th Street, Northwest and Fuller Street, 
        Northwest and 16th Street, Northwest and Euclid Street, 
        Northwest in Washington, District of Columbia; and
            (3) be similar in design to the signs used by the District 
        of Columbia to designate the location of Metro stations.
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