[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 124 (Wednesday, September 10, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1753]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                  2004

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                               speech of

                             HON. RON KIND

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 9, 2003

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2989) making 
     appropriations for the Departments of Transportation and 
     Treasury, and independent agencies for the fiscal year ending 
     September 30, 2004, and for other purposes:

  Mr. KIND. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the Flake/McGovern 
amendment to lift the United States travel ban to Cuba.
  Over the past 40 years, our policy of isolation toward Cuba has been 
an arguable failure. The removal of the totalitarian regime in Cuba has 
not occurred--even a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba's 
primary financial sponsor. Positive movements toward political change 
have not occurred in Cuba over the past 40 years--even as an 
overwhelming number of former communist regimes have collapsed and 
embraced democratic principles. These factors beg the question of 
whether our current policy toward Cuba is the best course of action for 
the people of the United States and the people of Cuba. At the very 
least, these factors demand that we reexamine our current policy.
  With the free exchange of ideas and words profoundly important in 
American culture, it seems contradictory that our government would deny 
its people the opportunity to peaceably spread this concept without 
unnecessary restrictions. lf the central mission of American Foreign 
policy is to protect Americans and our interests abroad, how does 
restricting the ability of Americans to travel to Cuba, a nation deemed 
by the U.S. Department of Defense as not posing a ``military threat to 
the U.S. or to any other countries in the region,'' justifiable?
  I am concerned that Cuban civilians suffer under government 
oppression, and it is time to confront the fact that denying direct 
American tourism to Cuba has resulted in no beneficial change. The 
island of Cuba is only 90 miles away from the United States and is 
surrounded by nations that embrace democracy. Positive steps to bring 
American ideas and words to Cuba are the right course of action, and I 
urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

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