Our Best Chance to End the Travel Ban to Cuba in 2010

[Judi Lynn]

Our Best Chance to End the Travel Ban to Cuba in 2010
Latin America Working Group, Feb 23, 2010
Straight to the Source


Today in Washington, Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN), Congressman Jerry Moran (R-KS), and at least 31 of their House colleagues introduced new legislation (HR 4645) that would put the United States and Cuba firmly on a path towards engagement by (finally) restoring U.S. citizens' right to travel to Cuba and facilitating needed U.S. agricultural sales to the island that were initially approved by Congress in 2000.

ACT NOW: Call your House representative today and ask her/him to co-sponsor HR 4645, the bipartisan Peterson-Moran bill on opening travel and enhancing ag sales to Cuba. You can reach members' offices through the Capitol Switchboard at [phone].

If you prefer sending an email, that's fine, too. Click here to send your congressperson your message!

Click here to see the bill's text.
Click here to learn if your House representative is an original co-sponsor; if so, please call to thank her/him.
Click here to see the Agriculture Committee's press release on the bill.

More:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_20384.cfm

SUPPORT FOR TRAVEL: After years of working with you to organize and educate the U.S. public, allowing U.S. citizens' travel to Cuba is now favored by a majority of U.S. citizens and 67 percent of Cuban Americans. And the ripple effect created by our efforts in Miami, Washington, and beyond is finally changing attitudes in Congress: the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act (HR 874, introduced by Congressmen Delahunt and Flake; and S 428, introduced by Senators Dorgan and Enzi), legislation similar to the new Peterson-Moran bill, has won the backing of 177 House members and 38 senators.

As you know, we need 218 votes in the House and a supermajority of 60 in the Senate. It appears that we have gone about as far as we can go in gathering cosponsors for these two original travel bills. We need something to attract a new constituency, activate educational work on Capitol Hill, re-focus the Congress, create more momentum, and push us over the top.

That's where the Peterson-Moran bill comes in. A lot of work on Capitol Hill by the agriculture and commodity communities is making a big difference. Additional members are paying attention, and several new cosponsors have already been attracted to this new bill. Joining travel and ag together in the same legislation will, we anticipate, give us the boost that we need to get the job done.

[naaman fletcher]

1. Something we agree on. nt.