House Passes Amendments to Ease Cuba Embargo !

Tue September 9, 2003 08:16 PM ET
By Pablo Bachelet

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representative passed three amendments on Tuesday that aim to roll back the Cuba trade embargo, setting the stage for a showdown with the White House that has threatened to veto the initiatives.

Lawmakers passed by a 227-188 vote an amendment introduced by Arizona Republican Jeff Flake to a larger Transportation and Treasury spending bill. The Flake amendment seeks to deny the Bush administration funds to enforce the travel ban, without formally lifting the ban itself.

.... The debate cut through party lines, with William Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, saying the "magnitude of failure of this (travel) policy is colossal."

Delahunt presented his own amendment to lift caps on remittances that Cubans in the United States send to their relatives back home. That amendment passed by a 222-196 vote.

The Bush administration has steadfastly refused to relax travel rules, and tightened licensing requirements that allowed some tourists to go to Cuba legally. Rep. Jim Davis, a Florida Democrat, introduced an amendment to overturn those restrictions, and the House passed it by 246-173 vote.

More...
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3416390

dupe http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=105622

speek volumes imho.

Shame!