U.S. lawmaker still hopes to relax Cuba policy

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

U.S. lawmaker still hopes to relax Cuba policy
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 20, 2010 3:13pm EDT

(Reuters) - Advocates of easing restrictions on travel and trade with Cuba have not given up on legislation this year, the chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee said on Monday.

Representative Howard Berman, a Democrat, said he wanted his committee to vote on a bill that would relax Cuba policy in the next few weeks, before Congress recesses to campaign for congressional elections in November. But he acknowledged he does not know if there is enough support among lawmakers to approve the measure. The committee's top-ranking Republican, Cuban-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, is a known opponent.

The legislation would lift the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba and remove hurdles on food sales to the island. A broad coalition of farm, business and human rights groups support the legislation as an important step toward ending the almost five-decade-old embargo on communist-led Cuba and promoting positive change there.

"I am totally committed to getting rid of the travel ban" affecting Cuba, Berman told the Reuters Washington Summit. "I'm not as focused on the agricultural stuff, but I've been trying since 1986 to get rid of the travel ban." But he would not bring the measure up in committee unless he had the votes to pass it, he said. "I'm not going to bring it up to lose."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68J48920100920?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=summitNews&rpc=401

[Socal31]

1. Let me know when I can drink some rum on a Cuban beach.

Enough already.

[Vidar]

2. Bravo Rep Berman!

[Blue_Tires]

3. I'm still surprised that normalizing trade relations hasn't gotten more momentum

especially when thinking how much it could help both economies...