Boozman backs Cuba-travel bill

50-year embargo hasn’t changed island for better, he says

Americans could freely travel to Cuba under a bill proposed Thursday by a bipartisan group of senators including Arkansas’ John Boozman (shown left).
Americans could freely travel to Cuba under a bill proposed Thursday by a bipartisan group of senators including Arkansas’ John Boozman (shown left).

WASHINGTON -- Americans could freely travel to Cuba under a bill proposed Thursday by a bipartisan group of senators including Arkansas' John Boozman.


RELATED ARTICLES

http://www.arkansas…">Senators vote 62-36 to pass Keystone billhttp://www.arkansas…">Oil firms lobby to lift export ban

Most travel to the island nation 90 miles south of Florida has been restricted for decades.

Late last year, President Barack Obama announced that the United States will ease travel and banking restrictions and will restore full diplomatic relations with the communist country, including opening an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than 50 years.

While the president's new policy made travel to Cuba easier for family visits, government business and professional research, as well as for educational, religious or humanitarian trips, federal law still prohibits any other travel to the country, including tourism.

Only Congress can lift the current embargo. Several Republican senators, including possible presidential contender Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and several other Cuban-American lawmakers, have said they don't want to allow travel and trade until the Cuban government allows a free press, freedom of assembly and open, democratic elections.

Boozman, a Republican from Rogers, announced the bill at a Capitol press conference Thursday along with U.S. Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Tom Udall, D-N.M. It is the first legislative effort to change the law since Obama's announcement in December.

Boozman said the United States embargo, put in place in 1960 by President Dwight Eisenhower, hasn't influenced the Cuban government's behavior.

"At this point in time there's no reason to continue down the path that we've been going towards for the last 50 years," Boozman said. "I really feel like the way that you change society is through personal relationships and lifting the travel ban would be a tremendous step in the right direction."

Durbin said interaction between American tourists and Cubans could bring about change.

"Let's give our people the chance to travel, and they will not only bring money to spend, they are going to bring new ideas, new values and real change to Cuba," he said.

A comparable House bill is expected to be filed next week by Reps. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Mark Sanford, R-S.C.

Critics say normalizing relations with the communist country rewards a government that still abuses its people's human rights.

In statements, Rubio has called normalizing relations a "one-sided deal" that is "enriching a tyrant and his regime at the expense of U.S. national interests and the Cuban people."

Another Cuban-American, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., told USA Today Thursday that expanding travel would be counterproductive.

"We should not aspire to help the Castro regime fill the coffers of its military monopolies with the dollars of American tourists, while the Cuban people still struggle to make ends meet and are forced to labor under the oppressive conditions dictated by their government," he said.

Boozman said Americans can already freely travel to countries with much worse records.

"Before the turmoil and overthrow in Libya, I could get on a plane and go to Libya. We had complete diplomatic relations with them and could run around the country and actually be pretty safe and yet I can't do the same thing in Cuba," Boozman said. "That really doesn't make any sense. Right now I can go to almost any country, just get on a plane and go anywhere. Why can't you go to Cuba, as opposed to Vietnam or Saudi Arabia? ... You have to be consistent."

Boozman said people may be surprised how much support the idea has, but the hard part will be persuading Senate and House leadership to bring the bill up for a vote. Both House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have said they oppose the president's moves to normalize relations with Cuba.

"There's been lots of opposition in the past, I think the opposition has lessened through the years, I think people are realizing that we've tried one method of doing things... and it's time now to start engaging," Boozman said.

Boozman and Flake have worked together on changing the country's policy toward Cuba for over a decade. The Arkansas senator said he's consistently championed the issue and "it is not difficult" to disagree with Republican leaders on it.

Flake noted opposition from some to lifting the entire embargo, and said the bill addresses just travel, and not trade, because he thinks it will be easier to reach a consensus.

"There is overwhelming support, here, in Florida, all across the country ... for lifting the travel ban," Flake said. "There is just a good consensus, I think, to move ahead on travel restrictions."

Flake said democracy is more likely to come to Cuba through the free trade of ideas and by having citizens meet each other than through keeping people apart.

"We've tried this current policy that we have limiting travel for about 50 years and it hasn't worked, so it's time for something new, time to allow Americans to travel freely to Cuba," Flake said.

Agriculture and business groups in Arkansas have praised the president's new Cuba policy and said they are ready for the opportunity to export more food to Cuba.

Boozman and six other Republican senators also sent a joint letter to Obama Thursday that said they are committed to changing the country's policies toward trade with Cuba.

Boozman said it could be easier to lift the trade embargo once Americans can travel to Cuba.

"The travel embargo is a very reasonable first step. What I would like to see is that leading to much more normal relations so that we can start ... trading," he said.

A section on 01/30/2015

Upcoming Events