U.S. Congress Panel Delays Vote on Lifting Cuba Travel Ban

U.S. Congress Panel Delays Vote on Lifting Cuba Travel Ban

The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee postponed an eagerly awaited vote on a measure that would abolish the ban on travel to Cuba. The move effectively leaves very little time this year for the proposal to get to the full Congress for a vote.

Those supporting the lifting of the ban had hoped the bill to relax trade and travel limits would at least get out of the committee to the full House of Representatives before midterm elections in November, in which the Democrats risk losing their majority in the House.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) said lawmakers had too busy a schedule to allow a debate and vote on the Cuba measure on Wednesday. He said that might be the last day Congress is in session before lawmakers go home to campaign for the Nov. 2 elections.

“Accordingly, I am postponing consideration of H.R. 4645 until a time when the Committee will be able to hold the robust and uninterrupted debate this important issue deserves,” Berman said, adding that he was confident that, when the bill is put to the vote, the right to travel to Cuba will be restored to all Americans. The legislation would lift the ban on U.S. tourist travel to Cuba and also remove hurdles on food sales to the island.

A coalition of tourism, farm, business and human rights groups are supporting the legislation as an important step toward ending the five-decade-old embargo on Cuba. U.S. advocates for better ties with Cuba have been hoping Obama will go further and allow more group travel as part of cultural, academic and religious exchanges.

John McAuliff, founder and executive director of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development, which seeks an end to the ban on U.S. travel to Cuba, said the position of the Obama administration on the legislation is not known.

Based on several news stories in August, McAuliff said, it is clear that the administration was preparing to announce regulatory reform enabling non-tourist people-to-people travel at or beyond the level permitted by the Clinton Administration by early September. However, he said Cuban-American members of the House and Senate and their south Florida ally, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, objected vociferously.