[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 11, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3005-S3006]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  Cuba

  I wish to make a couple points about a subject I did not talk about 
in recent days because there was a lot of controversy on the floor of 
the Senate over some provisions that I included in the omnibus bill 
dealing with Cuba. I wish to make a couple comments because much of the 
discussion has been inaccurate.
  Fifty year ago, Fidel Castro walked up the steps of the capitol in 
Havana, having come from the mountains as a revolutionary. Fidel Castro 
turned Cuba into a Communist country. I have no time for Fidel Castro 
or the Communist philosophy of Cuba. But it has always been my interest 
to try to understand why we treat Cuba differently than we do other 
Communist countries.
  China is Communist, Communist China. What is our policy with China? 
Engagement will be constructive; allow people to travel to China; trade 
with China; constructive engagement will move China in the right 
direction. That has always been our policy with respect to Communist 
China. I have been to China.
  Vietnam is a Communist government. What is our policy? Engagement is 
constructive; travel to Vietnam; trade with Vietnam; constructive 
engagement will move Vietnam toward better human rights and greater 
freedoms. I have been to Vietnam.
  That is our constructive approach with respect to Communist 
countries. Cuba? Different, an embargo with respect to Cuba, a complete 
embargo, which at one time even included food and medicine which, in my 
judgment, is immoral. In addition to an embargo, we said: We don't like 
Fidel Castro; so we are going to slap around the American people as 
well because we are going to prevent them from traveling to Cuba. So we 
have people in the Treasury Department in a little organization called 
the Office of Foreign Assets Control, called OFAC, that at least until 
not long ago was spending 20 to 25 percent of its time tracking 
American citizens who were suspected of vacationing in Cuba.
  Can you imagine that? The organization was designed to track 
terrorist money. But nearly a quarter of its time was spent trying to 
track whether Americans went to Cuba to take a vacation illegally. Let 
me show you some of what they have done.
  This woman is named Joan Slote. I have met Joan. Joan is a senior 
Olympian bike rider. Joan went to Cuba to ride bicycle with a Canadian 
bicycling group. Canadians can go to Cuba, and she assumed it was legal 
for Americans also. She answered an ad in a bicycling magazine and 
said: Yes, I would like to bicycle in Cuba. So she went.
  For going to bicycle in Cuba, she was fined $7,630 by the U.S. 
Government under the Trading with the Enemy Act. Think of that, the 
Trading with the Enemy Act. This senior citizen bicyclist was fined by 
her Government. Then, because her son had a brain tumor and she was 
attending to her son in another State, she did not get this notice. So 
the Government took steps to threaten to attach her Social Security 
check. Unbelievable. This is unbelievable, in my judgment.
  This is Joni Scott, a young woman who came to see me one day. She 
went to Cuba with a religious group to pass out free Bibles. You can 
guess what happened to her. Her Government was tracking her down to try 
to fine her for going to Cuba to pass out free Bibles. Why? Because we 
decided to punish Fidel Castro by not allowing the American people to 
travel to Cuba.
  Here is Leandro. He is a Cuban American but he could not attend his 
father's funeral in Cuba. President Bush, by the way, changed the 
circumstances that Cuban Americans living in this country could travel 
to Cuba so they can go only once in 3 years rather than once in 1 year. 
Your mother is dying? Tough luck. Your father is dying? Tough luck. You 
can't go there. That policy is unbelievable to me.
  This is a man I met, SGT Carlos Lazo. SGT Carlos Lazo fled from Cuba 
on raft and went to Iraq to fight for this country. He won a Bronze 
Star there. He is a great soldier. His sons were living in Cuba with 
their mother. One of his sons was quite ill. He came back from fighting 
in Iraq, and was denied the opportunity see his sick son in Cuba 90 
miles away from Florida. That is unbelievable to me. In fact, we even 
had a vote on the floor of the Senate--we did it because I forced it--
whether we were going to let this soldier go to Cuba to see his sons. 
We fell only a few votes short of the two thirds we needed to change 
the law.
  My point is, our policies make no sense at all. We are going to slap 
around the American people because we are upset with Castro and Cuba. I 
am upset with Castro. I am upset with Cuba's policies. But with 
Communist China and Communist Vietnam, we say travel there, trade with 
them, constructive engagement moves them in the right direction.
  John Ashcroft and I, when John Ashcroft was in the Senate, passed the 
first piece of legislation that opened a crack for American farmers to 
be able to sell food and for us to sell medicine in Cuba. We opened 
just a crack. There was a time a few years ago when the first train 
carloads of dried peas from North Dakota went to a loading dock to be 
shipped to Cuba.

  President Bush decided: I am going to tighten up all that. I am going 
to tighten up family visits; I am going to tighten up and try to thwart 
the ability of farmers to sell food into Cuba. It made no sense to me. 
So in this omnibus legislation, I made the changes we have been talking 
about and debating for years; that is, restoring the right of family 
visits once a year rather than once in 3 years and a couple other 
changes to make it easier to export food and medicine to Cuba.
  But I wish to make the point that some people on the floor of the 
Senate have claimed this legislation that was in the omnibus would 
extend U.S. credit to Cuba. It is flat out not true. There is nothing 
in these provisions that would extend credit to Cuba. In fact, the 
Ashcroft-Dorgan or Dorgan-Ashcroft legislation that allowed us to sell 
food into Cuba explicitly prohibits U.S. financing for food sales to 
Cuba. They cannot purchase food from us unless it is in cash, and the 
payments cannot even be conducted directly through an American bank. 
They have to run through a European bank for a cash transaction to buy 
American farm products. But at least the law allows us to compete with 
the Canadians, the Europeans, and others who sell farm products into 
Cuba.
  These policies, in my judgment, have been a failure, dating back to 
1960. There is no evidence at all that this embargo has been helpful.
  I have been to Cuba. I have been to Havana. I talked with the 
dissidents who take strong exception and fought the Castro regime every 
step of the way, and a good number of those dissidents said to me this 
embargo we have with respect to Cuba is Castro's best excuse. Castro 
says: Sure our economy is in shambles. Wouldn't it be? Wouldn't you 
expect it to be if the 500-pound gorilla north of here has its fist 
around your neck? That is what the Castro regime says to excuse its 
dismal record--the economy, human rights, and all of it.
  I, personally, think it is long past the time to take another look. I 
know Senator Lugar also published some recommendations on Cuba policy 
recently. Sometime soon, Senator Enzi and I and others are going to 
talk about legislation we have introduced on this subject. It is long 
past the time to take another look at this issue and begin to treat 
Cuba as we treat Communist China and Communist Vietnam.
  I think constructive engagement is far preferable because now the 
only voice the Cuban people hear effectively is the Castro voice, 
whether it is Raul or Fidel--I guess it is now Raul. That is the only 
thing they hear, and they need to hear more. Hearing more from a flock 
of tourists who go to a country such as Cuba would, in my judgment, 
open a substantial amount of new dialog. So I think travel and trade 
will be constructive, not just with China and Vietnam. I think there is 
evidence in both cases--I have been to both countries--that 
constructive engagement has moved forward in both countries in a 
measurable way.
  Has engagement resulted in a quantum leap with china and Vietnam? No, 
but it is measurable. I think the same would be true with respect to 
Cuba.

[[Page S3006]]

  What persuaded me to come to the floor to talk about this today was a 
discussion this past week on the floor regarding the provisions I 
sponsored on the bill we passed last night. I didn't engage in that 
discussion because we needed to move the omnibus bill.
  I did want the Senate Record to understand and show exactly what the 
history has been and what we have done. What we have done, I think, is 
a very small step in the right direction. Much more needs to be done, 
whether it is saying to American farmers: You have a right to compete, 
you have a right to sell farm products without constraints. By the way, 
one of the provisions in the bill authorizes a general license that 
would make it easier for farm groups like the Farmers Union and Farm 
Bureau to go to an agriculture expo in Cuba to be able to sell their 
products. That is not radical. That is not undermining anything. That 
is common sense.
  The drip, drip, drip of common sense in this Chamber could be helpful 
over a long period of time. This is just a couple small drops of common 
sense that I think will help us as we address the issue of Cuba.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.