[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 90 (Thursday, June 30, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1413-E1414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS 
                        APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 28, 2005

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3057) making 
     appropriations for foreign operations, export financing, and 
     related programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
     2006, and for other purposes:

  Mr. POE. Mr. Chairman, I want to express my support for the 
underlying bill. I thank the Chairman for allowing an amendment in 
committee, by my colleague from Missouri, Ms. Emerson, which reverses 
the Treasury Department's ruling against the definition of payment of 
cash in advance--a ruling that hinders rice exports to Cuba.
  Since this Treasury Department ruling, rice exports to Cuba have been 
down 66 percent. Since the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export 
Enhancement Act that was passed in 2000, rice sales to Cuba had grown 
to $64 million a year and last year's rice imports from the U.S. 
amounted to 160,000 tons. According to the President of Cuba's Food 
Agency, Cuba expects to import 750,000 tons of rice this year. We need 
to make sure this is American rice

[[Page E1414]]

and this amendment went a long way to ensure this. This amendment stops 
the Treasury Department's roadblocks in shipping American rice to Cuba.
  The Cuban people will eat rice. If we will not sell it to them, they 
will get it elsewhere, from countries like Vietnam, Thailand, and 
China. I appreciate the hard work Ms. Emerson, the U.S. Rice Producers, 
and the U.S.A. Rice Federation have done toward reversing these trade 
restrictions. American rice is the best in the world and our Government 
must encourage rice trade instead of preventing such trade.
  I encourage my colleagues to support the underlying bill.

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