[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 94 (Wednesday, June 5, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3240-S3242]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Cuba Sanctions

  Mr. President, there are foreign policies that are thoughtful, that 
reflect lessons learned from history, and that advance our national 
interests. Let me talk about others.
  I have been here for a lot of years. I was fortunate to come here at 
the time of President Ford and have known and seen every President 
since. I have seen some dumb policies by administrations over the 
years, both by Republicans and Democrats. I want to speak briefly about 
one of them because it is not just dumb. It is an embarrassment. It is 
going to hurt a lot of Americans. It is going to hurt a lot of good 
people in Cuba, and there is no denying that.
  I refer to the decision announced by the Treasury Department 
yesterday to severely restrict travel by Americans to Cuba. Why? 
Because Cuba supports Nicolas Maduro.
  The administration has reinstituted the failed policy of the Cold War 
restrictions on the right of every American citizen to travel to Cuba, 
even though the overwhelming majority of Americans, Republicans and 
Democrats alike, opposes such restrictions. It means cruise ships will 
stop sailing there. Educational and cultural exchanges will shut down. 
Sports teams will stay home. School trips will end. Trade missions will 
end. American farmers who could export products to Cuba are going to be 
shut out as well as other American companies.
  I have to ask: What kind of government thinks it has a right to tell 
its citizens where they can travel and where they can spend their own 
money? Ironically, not the Cuban Government, despite its repressive 
policies. Cubans can travel to the United States if we grant them a 
visa.
  Russia is kleptocracy with nuclear weapons pointed at us, that 
invades its neighbors, supports President Assad and Nicolas Maduro, 
interferes with our elections, and opposes the United States at every 
turn in the U.N. Security Council. But Americans can travel to Russia 
without restriction, just as Russians can travel here.
  Iran has brutally repressive government, but it does not have laws 
and regulations to prevent its citizens from traveling to the United 
States or Americans from traveling there.
  Nicaragua is led by a corrupt dictator, but Nicaraguans can travel to 
any country that will accept them, and Americans are free to travel 
there.
  In fact, Americans can travel anywhere in the world without 
restriction, except to North Korea and now Cuba, whose people could not 
be more welcoming of Americans.
  How do I know this? Because unlike the people in the White House and 
the Treasury Department who have never ever been to Cuba, I have been 
there. My wife Marcelle has been there. Our granddaughter Sophia has 
been there.
  This administration's policy is being guided by a couple of hard-
liners in the National Security Council who have never set foot in Cuba 
but are on a crusade to pressure the Cuban Government to change its 
policies. After 50 years of trying and failing to get Cuba to change 
its policies, they continue to believe that one way to do that is by 
preventing Americans who believe in democracy from traveling to Cuba 
and spending their own money there.
  Of all the paternalistic, anachronistic, and hypocritical policies, 
that is beneath the world's oldest democracy. We tried it for 50 years, 
from the time I was in college. It failed. In fact, it backfired. As we 
blocked access to Cuba, the Cuban authorities solidified their control.
  This will backfire, too. If past experience is any guide, it will 
cause them to intensify their support for Maduro.
  We all want Maduro gone, but are we so blinded by arrogance, ideology 
and stupidity that we are destined to keep repeating our mistakes?
  If this policy makes sense for Cuba, why not for other repressive 
governments whose policies we disagree with, like China? They have 
imprisoned a million of their Uyghur citizens. Their military is deeply 
involved in the economy. Yet millions of Americans go to China without 
restriction.
  Egypt has destroyed what fragile democratic institutions existed 
there. They have locked up thousands of political opponents, as well as 
American citizens. Yet President Trump calls President al Sisi a great 
friend--a man who locks up Americans, locks up people who disagree with 
him.
  Saudi Arabia commits war crimes in Yemen, they treat women as 
property, and they murdered Jamal Khashoggi and other dissidents. The 
Crown Prince, who we know was involved in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi, 
is apparently untouchable, and our President and Secretary of State 
seem to prefer it that way. But Americans can still travel to Saudi 
Arabia without reservation.
  These regulations are an insult to every American. They are a 
disgrace to a free society. Since when is it the role of the Federal 
Government to say where Americans can travel and spend their own money, 
absent some threat to national security or their own health and safety, 
neither of which exists in Cuba?
  It is not going to hurt the leaders in Cuba. They are not going to 
submit to bullying. If anything, it will harden their attitude toward 
the United States.
  I know who it will hurt. It will hurt the people who most deserve our 
help--the Cuban families who own small businesses, who rent out rooms 
in their apartments, who own their own taxis and restaurants. Artisans 
and musicians. People who otherwise subsist on meager government 
salaries and rations and benefit enormously when Americans visit Cuba.
  Marcelle and I have met with many of these people--young people 
especially--who have Airb&bs, who have started their own small 
businesses. They work extremely hard within a system stacked against 
them, and they need American customers. The White House just slammed 
the door on them.
  Of course we disagree with the Cuban Government. On many things we 
strongly disagree. But we disagree with many governments over Venezuela 
and other issues. Does that give the Treasury Department the right to 
tell Americans they can't travel there?
  What if the Treasury Department imposed such restrictions on travel 
by Members of Congress? What if they said ``after today, Members of 
Congress can no longer travel to China or Russia''. There is not a 
single Senator, Republican or Democrat, who would stand for that. What 
hypocrisy.
  Freedom to travel is a right. It is fundamental. It is part of who we 
are as Americans. We travel. We explore. We meet people. We share our 
values. We build relationships with people we agree with and disagree 
with. Are we willing to stand by and let the right of private Americans 
to travel be trampled this way?
  I will have more to say about this self-defeatist policy when I 
introduce the bipartisan Freedom for Americans to Travel to Cuba Act.
  I urge all Senators to not let the same old, worn out, Cold War, 
isolationist, fearmongering, failed arguments about Cuba stand in the 
way of common sense.
  I see one of my very good friends on the floor, the Senator from 
Ohio.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cramer). The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I thank my friend and colleague and one-
time President pro tempore of this body, Senator Leahy.


                       75th Anniversary of D-Day

  Mr. President, I am here on the floor today to talk about D-Day, to 
talk about how we would remember the 75th anniversary tomorrow of a 
turning point in World War II: June 6, 1944, the invasion of Normandy.
  Historian Douglas Brinkley has written that D-Day was both the single 
most important in the 20th century and one of the bloodiest and most 
tragic, too, in terms of loss of life.
  On D-Day, our fleets set forth from the rocky shores of Britain to 
reach the fog-shrouded beaches of Normandy. On board the thousands of 
ships and planes were our fathers and grandfathers and great-
grandfathers--some no older than 18 years old--who would bravely 
venture ashore in a show of determination and duty. There were

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160,000 soldiers who crossed the English Channel that day. On their 
backs were rucksacks, some weighing over 80 pounds. But really on their 
backs was the fate of our allies in Europe and, really, the fate of the 
free world. Were our men to fail that day, Europe might well have 
fallen to Hitler once and for all.
  Many of our best and brightest young Americans did fall. We lost more 
than 10,000 men that day.
  The Nazis had spent 2 years fortifying the coast to prepare for this 
moment. It was Hitler's so-called Atlantic Wall. The beautiful 
coastline of northern France was covered in barbed wire, landmines, and 
bunkers. Hell had come to Earth to greet our men as they landed, and 
still they fought on gallantly.
  At the end of the largest amphibious invasion in history, we stood 
victorious, battered but unbroken. On we marched, through France, 
through Belgium, and finally into Germany. The world would never be the 
same.
  Even today among the beautiful flowers and fields of Normandy, you 
can feel the lingering presence of those who died that day in service 
of liberating Europe, and you can see it, as I have, at the stark, 
orderly U.S. military cemeteries, where row after row of white crosses 
and Stars of David stand defiant, representing lives lost in a noble 
cause. Though much has happened in the following 75 years, we can never 
lose sight of the valor and sacrifice displayed by our Armed Forces on 
that day.
  On Memorial Day, I spoke at the National Veterans Memorial Museum in 
Columbus, OH, and also at a cemetery in Grove City, OH. In both 
ceremonies, there were World War II veterans present and up front. To 
see the generations of veterans and family members there to honor the 
fallen was to see the living embodiment of the stories we ought to 
remember from a war that recedes further into the past with each 
passing year.
  Stories of valor like that displayed by Jim ``Pee Wee'' Martin, from 
Dayton, OH. On that day, he and the rest of the 506th Parachute 
Infantry Regiment parachuted through German lines in the dark of 
predawn. Jim was wounded but fought bravely, earning the Purple Heart 
and Bronze Star for his D-Day efforts.
  Stories of sacrifice like that of the Napier Brothers of Warren 
County in Southwest Ohio. All five served in the war. Two of the 
brothers of the five landed at D-Day. One died there on the beaches, 
never to come home to Ohio.
  These are stories to be preserved for the generations to come. The 
memory of D-Day and, indeed, all of World War II must never be lost. 
That is why I was proud to join my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle earlier today to show through our resolution the gratitude and 
appreciation of the Senate for the courage shown by our troops who 
participated in the Normandy landings that day.
  Since I have been a Member of the Senate, I have come to this floor 
often on D-Day to recite a very special prayer given by President 
Roosevelt on that fateful day. It was expected that Franklin Delano 
Roosevelt would give a speech when the invasion took place, as he had 
done many times before, called the fireside chats from the White House. 
But on the morning of D-Day, FDR was moved to prayer instead. That 
famous prayer has become known as the D-Day prayer. It is my 
understanding that President Trump actually recited this prayer just 
yesterday in the United Kingdom at an event that preceded the official 
ceremonies tomorrow commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
  The words are powerful and deserve to be remembered for generations 
to come. In 2013, I introduced legislation, the World War II Memorial 
Act, which directs the Secretary of the Interior to install a plaque to 
be placed on or near the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in 
Washington, DC, with the words of the D-Day prayer. I like that because 
it adds more context and more interpretation to that beautiful World 
War II Memorial. It was the Ohio Christian Alliance president, Chris 
Long, who first came to me with this good idea of placing this plaque 
on or near the memorial, given its history and importance.
  Since that legislation was signed into law in 2014, we have worked 
hard with the National Park Service, the Friends of the National World 
War II Memorial, and the two Federal commissions that are required to 
approve any permanent structure on the National Mall. It has been 5 
years now--actually longer than America's involvement in World War II--
and although we do not yet have this plaque placed, we have made 
progress.
  The commissions have approved the location of the plaque to be just 
north of the World War II Memorial at the Circle of Remembrance. If you 
have been to the memorial, you come from the Washington Monument, and 
you see the Circle of Remembrance on the right. The commissions have 
also approved initial design concepts for the plaque, which must comply 
with the Commemorative Works Act.
  We are moving forward with this project, by the way, without any 
Federal funding. We are relying on private fundraising, not taxpayer 
dollars.
  We had hoped to have the plaque in place, of course, for the 75th 
anniversary tomorrow. I am disappointed we don't, but, instead, we will 
preview tomorrow the placement of a temporary plaque with the words of 
the prayer at the chosen location, the Circle of Remembrance, next to 
the World War II Memorial. At our event tomorrow--which will include 
the chairman of the Friends of the National World War II Memorial; 
officials from the National Park Service; Chris Long, president of the 
Ohio Christian Alliance; and a number of World War II veterans--we will 
also lead a reading of the D-Day prayer. I am looking forward to that 
tomorrow.
  The temporary plaque, by the way, was generously donated to the 
Friends of the National World War II Memorial by Mr. John Nau, a member 
of the National Parks Foundation Board, who felt strongly about at 
least having a temporary plaque in place.
  We are hopeful that the permanent plaque will be placed at the Circle 
very soon.
  The fact that a prayer was offered that day, on D-Day, by the 
Commander in Chief is historic in and of itself, but I think it is the 
content of the prayer that makes it so worthy of remembrance. If I may, 
I would now like to read the D-Day prayer.
  FDR began:

       My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you 
     about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of 
     the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in 
     another and greater operation. It has come to pass with 
     success thus far.
       And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in 
     prayer:
       Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have 
     set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our 
     Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free 
     a suffering humanity.
       Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, 
     stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
       They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and 
     hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. 
     Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return 
     again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the 
     righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
       They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without 
     rest--until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by 
     noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the 
     violences of war.
       For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They 
     fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end 
     conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice 
     arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They 
     yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the 
     haven of home.
       Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive 
     them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
       And for us at home--fathers, mothers, children, wives, 
     sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas--whose thoughts 
     and prayers are ever with them--help us, Almighty God, to 
     rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of 
     great sacrifice.
       Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single 
     day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the 
     desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a 
     continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again 
     when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, 
     invoking Thy help to our efforts.
       Give us strength, too--strength in our daily tasks, to 
     redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the 
     material support of our armed forces.
       And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, 
     to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our 
     sons wheresoever they may be.
       And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in 
     our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. 
     Let not

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     the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the 
     impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but 
     fleeting moment, let not these deter us in our unconquerable 
     purpose.
       With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces 
     of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and 
     racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and 
     with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a 
     sure peace, a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy 
     men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, 
     reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
       Thy will be done, Almighty God.
       Amen.

  I think you will agree with me that these profound words deserve to 
be made a permanent part of our broader World War II Memorial for a 
noble day that we must never forget.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.