[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 91 (Thursday, May 25, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3222-S3223]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. FLAKE (for himself, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Moran, Mr. Durbin, Mr. 
        Enzi, Mr. Udall, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Whitehouse, Ms. Collins, Ms. 
        Klobuchar, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Reed, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Murphy, Mr. 
        Coons, Mr. Cardin, Mrs. Feinstein, Mrs. Shaheen, Ms. Heitkamp, 
        Mr. Brown, Ms. Baldwin, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Markey, 
        Mrs. McCaskill, Mr. Paul, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Kaine, Mr. King, Mr. 
        Franken, Ms. Warren, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. Sanders, Mr. 
        Tester, Mr. Warner, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Blumenthal, Mrs. Murray, 
        Mr. Schumer, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Donnelly, Mr. 
        Cassidy, Mr. Peters, Mr. Carper, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Van Hollen, 
        Ms. Harris, Mr. Casey, Mr. Crapo, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Daines, 
        Ms. Hassan, and Mr. Heller):
  S. 1287. A bill to allow United States citizens and legal residents 
to travel between the United States and Cuba; to the Committee on 
Foreign Relations.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today I am very pleased to join my friend, 
the junior Senator from Arizona, in introducing the Freedom for 
Americans to Travel to Cuba Act of 2017.
  I will have more to say about this bill, and United States policy 
toward Cuba, in the weeks and months ahead. My purpose in speaking 
today is simply to point out that 55 Democratic and Republican members 
of the Senate have cosponsored this bill to allow Americans to travel 
to Cuba in the same way that they can travel to any other country in 
the world. And based on my conversations with other Senators, 
especially Republicans, I have little doubt that if we voted on this 
bill today more than 60 Senators would support it.
  It is indefensible that the Federal government currently restricts 
American citizens and legal resident from traveling to a country 90 
miles away that poses no threat to us, unless they engage in certain 
activities and not others. For example, an American biologist can go to 
Cuba to study threatened species of migratory birds. That same American 
cannot take his family on a trip to visit Cuba's national parks. Why? 
Because one is defined as scientific research and the other is defined 
as tourism.
  At a time when U.S. airlines and cruise ships are flying and sailing 
to Cuba, does anyone here honestly think that preventing Americans from 
traveling is an appropriate role of the Federal government? Why only 
Cuba? Why not Venezuela? Or Russia? Or Iran, or anywhere else? It is a 
vindictive, discriminatory, self-defeating vestige of a time long 
passed. This bill would end these Cold War restrictions on the freedom 
of Americans to travel. It would not do away with the embargo.
  We are told that the Trump Administration is conducting a review of 
U.S. policy toward Cuba. That is to be expected of a new 
administration. We have also heard a rumor, and I hope it is only a 
rumor, that in return for the votes of certain Senators or 
representative on health care legislation, promises may have been made 
by the White House to impose further restrictions on the normalization 
of relations with Cuba. I hope that is not the case. I hope the review 
produces a policy based on what is in the U.S. national security 
interest and on what is in the interests of the American and Cuban 
people, an overwhelming majority of whom want closer relations. And I 
hope the policy reflects the bipartisan majority in Congress that 
supports expanding our engagement with Cuba, as evidenced by the bill 
we are introducing today.
  I and others who have traveled to Cuba many times over the past 20 
years, who have met with Cuban officials, with Cubans who have been 
persecuted for opposing the Castro government, and with many others, 
have requested meetings with top White House officials before the 
review is completed and any final decisions are made.
  Every one of us wants to see an end to political repression in Cuba. 
The arrests and physical mistreatment of dissidents by the Cuban 
government are deplorable, just as they are by other governments 
including some, like Egypt's and Turkey's, whose leaders have been 
feted at the White House, or, in the case of Saudi Arabia, have feted 
President Trump and his family. Americans can travel freely to Egypt, 
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and every other country, except Cuba.
  The issue is how best to support the people of Cuba who struggle to 
make ends meet, and who want to live in a country where freedom of 
expression and association are protected, and where they can choose 
their own leaders in a democratic manner.
  Anyone who thinks that more economic pressure, or ultimatums, will 
force the Cuban authorities to stop arresting political dissidents and 
embrace democracy have learned nothing from history. For more than half 
a century we have tried a policy of unilateral sanctions and isolation, 
and it has achieved neither of those goals. Instead, it has been used 
by the Cuban government as an excuse for repression to protect Cuba's 
sovereignty. It has hurt the Cuban people, not the Cuban government. 
And it has provided an opening for our adversaries and competitors, 
like Russia and China, in this hemisphere.
  Change is coming to Cuba, and we can help support that process. There 
is already visible, tangible evidence that the changes in U.S. policy 
initiated by President Obama are having positive effects for the Cuban 
people and for our security and economic relations with Cuba, even 
though critics, particularly those who have never been to Cuba, prefer 
to deny it.
  But most importantly, the bipartisan bill we are introducing today is 
about the right of Americans, not Cubans, to travel. Any member of 
Congress, especially those who have been to Cuba, should support the 
right of their constituents to do so. American citizens are our best 
Ambassadors to Cuba, and it is wrong for the United States government 
to be imposing restrictions

[[Page S3223]]

that have no place in the law books of a free society.

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