[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 109 (Monday, June 26, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3746-S3747]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Trump Administration Cuba Policy

  Madam President, on June 16, in a campaign-style speech glorifying 
the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, President Trump spoke 
of freedom and democracy for the Cuban people.
  Those are goals every one of us in this body shares, not only for the 
people of Cuba but for people everywhere. But the hypocrisy of the 
President's remarks in Miami, where he announced his decision to roll 
back engagement between the United States of America and Cuba, was 
glaring, if not surprising.
  This is a President who has praised, feted, and offered aid and 
weapons to some of the world's most brutal despots. A President who, 
when he was in Saudi Arabia, never uttered the words ``freedom'' or 
``democracy'' or ``women's rights.'' In fact, he said he did not 
believe in lecturing other governments about such things. Freedom House 
ranks Saudi Arabia as less free than Cuba.
  This is a President who welcomed at the White House President 
Erdogan, who has imprisoned tens of thousands of teachers, journalists, 
and civil servants as he dismantles the institutions of secular 
democracy in Turkey.
  President Trump praised Philippine President Duterte, who brags of 
committing murder and who defends a policy of summarily executing, 
without any legal process, thousands of suspected petty drug users.
  President Trump says he admires President Putin, and he acts like a 
soulmate to President El-Sisi, both of whom show no reluctance to order 
the imprisonment and, in Russia, even the assassination, of critics of 
their autocratic rule.
  Despite all of this--praising these tyrants around the world--
President Trump has decided to make a point of going after tiny Cuba, 
whose government, for all its faults, doesn't hold a candle to these 
other autocracies.
  If the hypocrisy were not enough, it gets a whole lot worse, because 
in doing so he is trampling on the rights of Americans--of the 
Presiding Officer, of me, and of everybody else in this country.
  I wonder how many, if any, Members of Congress have read the details 
of the President's announcement in Miami, other than the couple of 
Cuban-American Members of Congress--neither one of whom has ever set 
foot in Cuba--even though it is only a few miles off our coast. They 
publicly took credit for writing the new White House policy.
  Now, that, in and of itself, speaks volumes about the 
administration's so-called policy review. That turned out to be largely 
a sham. Apparently, every Federal agency recommended continuing down 
the path of engagement begun by President Obama, as did the U.S. 
business community and the rapidly growing number of private Cuban 
entrepreneurs who are benefiting from U.S. engagement.
  It is especially ironic that those hard-working Cubans and private 
American citizens are the ones who will be hurt by this change in 
policy. Instead, the President decided to toss a political favor to a 
tiny minority of the President's supporters in Miami.
  Now, the President's party has long claimed to be a party devoted to 
individual freedom, as we all should be. But let me give my colleagues 
a few examples of what his policy means for the freedom of individual 
Americans.
  First, remember that Americans can travel freely to any of the other 
countries I have mentioned, despite the repressive policies of their 
governments. Americans can travel to Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, 
Turkey, and Egypt, as well as to Iran, Vietnam, and China. We can go to 
any of those countries without restriction.
  Of course, Americans can travel freely to Russia, Cuba's former 
patron. I would note that Russia is now investing heavily in Cuba's 
transport sector and, taking advantage of the fact that we are turning 
our back on Cuba, they are seeking a military base there. And Americans 
can travel freely to the dictatorship of Venezuela, Cuba's source of 
cheap oil. In fact, Americans can travel freely to any country they 
want, provided that country will let them in, no matter how 
undemocratic, no matter how tyrannical, no matter how repressive. 
Apparently, President Trump could care less about that. But not to 
Cuba, whose people have far more in common with us than those of any of 
the other countries I named.
  No, President Trump says you can go to Iran, you can go to Vietnam, 
you can go to Russia, you can go to Turkey, and you can go to Saudi 
Arabia. You can go anywhere you want, but you can only go to Cuba under 
conditions that the White House and bureaucrats in the Treasury 
Department, who have never been to Cuba, permit.
  Rather than make your own decision about where to take your family 
for a vacation or to experience a foreign culture, the White House will 
make that decision for you.
  You must be a part of an organized group, and the purpose of your 
trip must fit within 1 of 12 licensing categories determined by 
bureaucrats at the Treasury Department. I suspect they have never been 
to Cuba.
  You must have a designated chaperone to verify that, Heaven forbid, 
you do not stray from the program submitted to and approved--you hope--
by the Treasury Department, whose employees and bureaucrats you have 
never met. If your application is interminably delayed or denied--for 
whatever reason--you are out of luck. There is no appeal.
  Now, that is how the White House says that Cuba will become a 
democracy. By curtailing the freedom of Americans to travel and spend 
their hard earned money there. By behaving the way we would expect of a 
communist dictatorship--not of the world's oldest democracy, where the 
government's job is to protect individual freedom, not trample on it. 
The example we set for Cuba is by trampling on the rights of our own 
people.
  How well did restricting travel by Americans to Cuba work from 1961 
until 2014, when President Obama relaxed those Cold War restrictions, 
decades after the Russians had abandoned the island and Cuba no longer 
posed any threat to us? It failed miserably. At the same time, it 
treated the Cuban and American people as pawns in a political game.

  Throughout those many years, the Castro government had a ready excuse 
for its own failings and repressive policies. They could blame it on 
the United States, and for many years, the Cuban people believed it 
because we, with our embargo, wouldn't let Americans travel to Cuba or 
do business there. But with the possible exception of the Pope, I don't 
think any foreigner has been received as warmly or engendered as much 
hope for the future as President Obama did when he and First Lady 
Michelle Obama visited Havana. It was amazing to watch the reaction of 
the people in Cuba.
  President Trump claims President Obama got a bad deal when our flag 
went up at the U.S. Embassy a little less than 2 years ago, after more 
than half a century. But President Trump has yet to say what the deal 
he believes he could obtain would look like. His so-called deal could 
be described in one word, ``capitulation,'' which hasn't worked for 
over 50 years.
  The White House decries the decrepit Cuban military's role in the 
economy, as if it poses a threat to us or is somehow an aberration. 
They should look at the role of Egypt's military and Russia's and 
Indonesia's and Pakistan's. They have their hands in all kinds of 
business and real estate ventures.
  They point out the number of people arrested in Cuba has increased. I 
have condemned the arrests of peaceful protesters. These arrests are 
wrong, but they are also wrong in the countries whose repressive 
governments the President has praised, some of which he regards as 
close allies of the United States.
  Now, like Americans, the Cuban people know that fundamental change 
will not happen quickly and that the revolutionaries who overthrew one 
dictator only to be replaced by another will hold on to power while 
they can. But they also know that their time is ending, that Cuba is 
changing, and that the American people can support them best by 
engaging with them.
  Secretary of State Tillerson says the administration is ``motivated 
by the conviction that the more we engage with other nations on issues 
of security and prosperity, the more we will have opportunities to 
shape the human rights conditions in those nations.'' Apparently, this 
administration should have added: ``except for Cuba.''
  On May 25, Senator Flake and I, along with 53 Democratic and 
Republican cosponsors, introduced the Freedom for Americans to Travel 
to Cuba

[[Page S3747]]

Act. It is, frankly, absurd that such legislation is even necessary to 
restore the American people's freedom to travel that the Federal 
Government should never have taken away.
  Fifty-five Senators of both parties are on record in support of doing 
away with the restrictions in law that even President Obama could not 
fix; and, frankly, if there is a vote on this bill, it will pass 
overwhelmingly. I hope the majority leader will strike a blow for 
democracy and actually let us have that vote so we can show the Cuban 
people what real democracy looks like when people are allowed to vote.
  We support freedom not only for the people of Cuba, we support it for 
the American people because we reject the idea that any government 
should deny its citizens the right to travel freely, least of all our 
own government. We actually believe Secretary Tillerson's rhetoric. We 
believe that restoring the punitive policy of the past is little more 
than a misguided act of vengeance rooted in a half-century-old family 
feud that will do nothing to bring freedom to Cuba.
  Who do we see now coming to Cuba to build a railroad? The Russians. 
Who do we see as we turn our back on Cuba planning to invest there? The 
Chinese. Let's not repeat the mistake we made for 50 years.
  The Cuban people and the American people want closer relations. Every 
single poll shows that. I wish President Trump would listen to the 
American people rather than to a tiny minority who want to turn back 
the clock.
  If we really care about freedom in Cuba, we should flood Cuba with 
American visitors and make it possible for American farmers and 
American companies to compete there as they would in any other country.
  If we really care about freedom, our government should stop playing 
Big Brother with the lives of Americans. It doesn't work. It has never 
worked. Frankly, it is wrong.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Moran). The Senator from Rhode Island.