Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2005

Mr. President, on Monday, April 25, I introduced a bill, S. 894, with Senator Dorgan that will make a small change in Cuba policy. It deals only with travel provisions to Cuba.

I have been watching Cuba since the 1960s. I went to college at George Washington University and was there at the time of the Cuban missile crisis. I have had the opportunity to watch what has happened with Cuba through the years and I am reminded of something my dad used to say: If you keep on doing what you have always been doing, you are going to wind up getting what you already got.

That is kind of been the situation with Cuba. We have been trying the same thing for 40 years--over 40 years--and it has not worked. So I am suggesting a change to get a few more people in there to increase conversation for people that understand the way the United States works and the way Cuba works and how they ought to drift more rapidly towards where we are.

Castro's cruelty to his own people has tempted us to tighten the already strong restrictions on the relations between our two countries, and we did. We need to be successful in bringing about a better way of life for the Cuban people.

When we stop Cuban-Americans from bringing financial assistance to their families in Cuba, and end the people to people exchanges, and stop the sale of agricultural and medicinal products to Cuba, we are not hurting the Cuban Government, we are hurting the Cuban people. We are diminishing their faith and trust in the United States and reducing the strength of the ties that bind the people of our two countries.

If we allow more and freer travel to Cuba, if we increase trade and dialogue, we take away Castro's ability to blame the hardships of the Cuban people on the United States. In a very real sense, the better we try to make things for the Cuban people, the more we will reduce the level and the tone of the rhetoric used against us by Fidel Castro.

As I mentioned before, it seems foolish to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. That is what we are doing in Cuba. We are continuing to exert pressure from our side and, as we do, we are giving Castro a scapegoat to blame for the poor living conditions in his country in the process. It is time for a different policy, one that goes further than embargoes and replaces a restrictive and confusing travel policy with a new one that will more effectively help us to achieve our goals in that country.

The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act is very straightforward. It states that the President shall not prohibit, either directly or indirectly, travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or transactions incident to such travel.

In 1958 the Supreme Court affirmed our constitutional right to travel, but the U.S. Government then prohibited Americans from spending money in Cuba. We simply said, OK, you have a right to travel, but try traveling without spending a dime.

One of the reasons I became involved in this issue is because a Cuban-American from Jackson, WY, had been in Cuba visiting his family, doing his one

visit a year. As he left and was on the plane coming back to Wyoming, one of his parents died. He could not go back there for a year. Under the recent changes, he now would be unable to go back for 3 years. This is not a good situation for any family.

I must ask my colleagues why we are continuing to support a policy that was basically implemented 40 years ago. Why are we supporting a policy that has had little effect on the government we oppose? Why don't we improve our policy so that it will improve conditions for the Cuban people and their image of the United States?

The bill we are introducing makes real change in our policy toward Cuba that will lead to real change for the people of Cuba. What better way to let the Cuban people know of our concern for their plight than for them to hear it from their friends, and extended family from the United States. Or let them hear it from the American people who will go there. The people of this country are our best ambassadors and we should let them show the people of Cuba what we as a Nation are all about. One thing we should not do is to play into Castro's hands by continuing to enact stricter and more stringent regulations and create a situation where the United States is easy to blame for the problems in Cuba.

Unilateral sanctions will not improve human rights for Cuban citizens. The rest of the world isn't doing what we are doing. They are being supplied by the rest of the world for everything that they need. Open dialogue and exchange of ideas and commerce can move a country toward democracy.

What better way to share the rewards of democracy than through people to people exchanges. Unilateral sanctions stop not just the flow of goods, but the flow of ideas. Ideas of freedom and democracy are the keys to positive change in any nation.

Some may ask why we want to increase dialogue right now, why open the door to Cuba when Castro behaves so poorly. No one is denying that the actions of Castro and his government are deplorable, as is his refusal to provide basic human rights to his people. But if you truly believe that Castro is dictator with no good intentions, how can you say we should wait for him to behave before we engage. He controls all the media in Cuba. The entire message that is coming out unless we have people interacting is his message. Keeping the door closed and hollering at Castro on the other side does nothing. Let's do something, let's open the door and talk to the Cuban people.

I encourage all of my colleagues to take a look at S. 894 and join me in this effort.