Four committee Republicans joined 14 Democrats to back the amendment.
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The techniques being advocate with the Senate Appropriations Committee, if legal, are the first penalties to survive any congressional agency to enable President Barack Obama’s shove to lower communications along with Cuba.
Moran, who is a member of the Appropriations Committee, also pointed out that “Americans can travel around the globe today without exception – no country is totally prohibited with the exception of Cuba“.
To become law, a version of the bill with the amendments also would have to pass the House of Representatives.
“Positive change in Cuba will take time”, Sen.
“These votes were not about the repugnant policies of the Castro regime, but about doing away with unwarranted impediments to travel and commerce imposed on Americans by our own government”, he said. Batista served as Cuban president before being overthrown during the Cuban revolution. The two countries officially restored diplomatic relations on Monday, with Cuba opening its embassy in Washington.
But the broader, half-century-old U.S. trade embargo remains in place and only Congress can lift it – something majority Republicans are unlikely to do.
Although several participants in the White House meeting said the administration is already working on a package of new regulations to improve U.S-Cuba relations, described by one knowledgeable source as “modest”, Vargas said she had nothing to announce on travel or trade regulations.
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Meanwhile, a GOP-controlled Senate panel voted Thursday to lift a decades-long ban on travel to Cuba, giving a boost to Obama’s moves to ease travel restrictions and open up relations with the island, the Associated Press reported.
