Senate Votes to End Cuba Travel Limits

Brushing aside veto threats from the White House, the Senate on Thursday joined the House in voting to end the United States’ long-standing restrictions on travel to Cuba.

With 19 Republicans breaking ranks with the Bush administration, the Senate voted 59 to 36 to bar use of government funds to enforce the restrictions as part of a $90-billion spending bill for the Treasury Department and other agencies. The House passed a virtually identical proposal last month.

The administration, which recently stepped up efforts to isolate the government of Fidel Castro, has threatened to veto the bill unless the travel provisions are dropped. The White House said it “believes that it is essential to maintain sanctions and travel restrictions to deny economic resources to the brutal Castro regime.”

But foes of the restrictions, many of whom represent states that want to sell agricultural and other products to Cuba, argued that the constraints hurt the United States more than Cuba and help Castro by enabling him to blame the United States for his country’s problems.

“The travel ban does nothing to hurt Fidel Castro,” said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D). “It only harms Americans.”

Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), who cosponsored the proposal with Dorgan, said the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control should be able to concentrate on terrorism and drug trafficking rather than having to worry about American tourists in Cuba.

Dorgan accused the administration of supporting continuation of the travel curbs to court the Cuban American vote in Florida.

Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) supported continuation of the travel restrictions. “Why should we now open up travel to Cuba to give additional cash flow to the Castro regime?” he asked.

GOP leaders had scrapped previous provisions seeking to end the ban, saying the House and Senate plans were significantly different.