House refuses to lift all Cuban sanctions

On July 20, by a vote of 174 to 241, the House rejected an effort by Rep. Charles Rangel (D: N.Y ) to effectively lift the economic embargo on Cuba. Rangel offered an amendment to the Treasury Appropriations bill (HR 4871) that would have blocked funding for the Implementation, administration or enforcement of the sanctions.

President Kennedy imposed the sanctions on Fidel Castro's Communist Cuba in 1962, and Congress codified the sanctions in 1996. While Rangel's measure would have left the 1996 law in place, it would have effectively voided it by denying any funds for its enforcement.

Rangel urged Congress to treat Cuba as it treats other Communist dictatorships-through "engagement," not isolation.

Rangel also lamented the harm to American businesses. "in addition to this, so many American businesses are suffering unnecessarily because of this embargo. Our farmers are looking for new markets; the tourism industry; our bankers. There are just great opportunities. Not only that, but the same arguments relate to China; that other countries are ignoring this so-called embargo. They are doing business in Cuba at our expense."

Supporting the sanctions, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R.- Fla.) asked, "Now, what has Castro done to merit the consideration and the courtesies that our colleagues seek to bestow upon him today? For us to send a signal saying, in effect, he can kill American citizens; do not worry about military action. And in four years we might want to make a buck from them?"

Rep. Jose Serrano (D.-N.Y.), an embargo opponent, said sanctions hurt the Cuban people. "We present a threat to the people in Cuba. We present a threat to the children in Cuba. Every time we deny contact through travel, every time we deny food and medicine, every time we deny our culture, our behavior, our ideals, our way of being and of conducting business to be seen and heard up close in Cuba, we are hurting the Cuban people. But we continue to believe that somehow, if we squeeze Cuba a little bit more, its government will tall apart and we keep hearing that."

Republicans proposed amendments to address travel and food and medicine separately (see House rollcalls, right).

Rep. Robert Menendez (D: N.J.) criticized the method by which the bill would lift sanctions. "The fact of the matter is that what the gentleman from NewYork seeks to do in his amendment would not actually change existing law. In other words, the embargo would remain, but the ability supposedly to administer and enforce it would be gone, and, of course, this would not only create confusion but it would create lawlessness. Because what it would say to U.S: citizens.is, `Go ahead, break,the law because the government can't catch you."

A "yes" vote was a vote to lift all economic sanctions on Cuba. A "no"vote was a vote against the amendment.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Sep 1, 2000
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