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Local Reaction Mixed As Cuba Limitations Eased

Tribune file photo by CHRIS URSO (2007)

The bill allows family members to visit relatives in Cuba once a year, rather than once every three years.

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By BILLY HOUSE and JOSE PATINO GIRONA

bhouse@tampatrib.com jpatino@tampatrib.com

Published: March 11, 2009

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate gave final approval Tuesday to a huge spending bill that also relaxes travel restrictions to Cuba and could usher in more trade with the communist nation after decades of strict embargoes.

The Cuba measures were the most controversial part of a massive $410 billion bill, and their passage sparked reaction from Washington to Tampa.

"We as Cubans have been penalized with this embargo, and the only ones that suffer are family members down there," said Sean Lau, a 37-year-old Tampa resident who was prevented from attending his father's funeral in Cuba.

Opponents delayed the bill's passage until Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner gave them assurances that the new rules would not open the door to a de facto suspension of the 47-year U.S. trade embargo toward Cuba.

Although the new measures relax several rules, the overall embargo against all-out trade and tourism remain.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill into law. It was passed last month by the U.S. House.

Critics of the bill have generated more headlines in recent weeks for attacking the overall $410 billion price tag, including its $7.7 billion in funding for more than 8,500 pet projects inserted by lawmakers.

Those so-called earmarks include hundreds of millions of dollars for programs and projects in Florida and the Tampa Bay area, ranging from $123 million for Everglades restoration to $475,000 for a water taxi feasibility study in Hillsborough County.

It was the Cuba provisions buried in the fine print, however, that in the end almost undermined the measure.

Last-Minute Deal

Geithner wrote to assure two key Democratic senators, Florida's Bill Nelson and New Jersey's Bob Menendez, that the language creating a new business-oriented license for travel to Cuba will not represent a softening of U.S. trade policy toward the communist-led island country.

The spending bill had been stalled since last week because Democrats who control the Senate were one vote short of the 60 needed to move the measure ahead.

Geithner assured Nelson and Menendez that the Obama administration would interpret the bill as allowing only a "narrow class" of businesses to be eligible, and that travel will be authorized only for "credible sales of food and medical products."

In addition, existing rules requiring payment in advance of U.S. food and medicine exports to Cuba would remain, as would other restrictions such as requiring Cuba to pay in advance through non-American, third-party banks.

Only after getting Geithner's assurances on the Cuba provisions did Nelson and Menendez agree to support the bill, putting it over the top. The Senate finally voted to end debate 62-35, and later passed the measure in a voice vote.

The two senators, along with Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, said they thought that inserting the Cuba provisions in the bill was misguided to begin with. They and others cite what they see as the Cuba government's long history of human-rights abuses and its belligerence to the United States.

"We have stood together, the three of us ... in a way I think is heartening," said Cuba-born Martinez, who did not support the bill.

If there is to be a new U.S. policy toward Cuba, Nelson added, "I think the better course is that we should allow our new president to make his own evaluations of policy. And then once the new president announces his declaration of that policy, we can come out here and openly debate that issue."

Nelson he did not have a problem with another provision that would restore travel rules permitting family members to visit their relatives in Cuba once a year.

The provision also allows Cuban-Americans to spend $170 a day during their visit with relatives once a year. Spending during family visits is now capped at $50 a day.

Nelson said Obama had promised during his campaign to lift some of the family travel constraints, as well as reconsider the $300 annual limit in monetary remittances that can be sent to family members in Cuba.

Obama has said he would not lift the embargo, however, as leverage for democratic reforms on the island nation.

Reactions Mixed

In the Tampa Bay area, the Cuba provisions were hailed by some as a step in the right direction, and a mistake by others.

Nora and Miguel Gutierrez of Tampa left Cuba 41 years ago and have no plans to return as long as Raul Castro, who took over leadership of the country from his ailing brother, Fidel, remains in power.

Easing the travel restrictions, they said, would be a boost to the Castros and the island-nation's economy.

"The more money that is sent to the Castro regime the more time they will be governing my country," said Nora Gutierrez, 81.

Vicente Amor is vice president of Tampa's Flor Caribe, a business that helps Cuban-Americans book charter flights to Cuba and wire money to relatives. The change will increase business, he said, but he wants to see an end to the embargo and an open travel policy to Cuba, even though it might affect his business.

"I think that it's the bill good, but it's insufficient," said Amor, who was born in Cuba and lives in Tampa.

Even though they passed as part of the spending bill, the Cuba provisions will not be permanent.

That's because the spending bill in which they are contained covers government operations only through the end of the fiscal year. As a result, the Cuba provisions also expire Sept. 30 unless there is a move by Congress to extend them.

More permanent changes in U.S.-Cuba policy via executive orders from the White House may come soon.

Obama is expected to attend a mid-April "Summit of the Americas" in Trinidad and Tobago in mid-April, and by that time may make some announcements of his own regarding U.S. policy to Cuba.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has told the Senate during her confirmation that the administration planned an overall review of Cuba policy.

Geithner also reminded Martinez, Menendez and Nelson that such a review is now taking place "to determine the best way to foster democratic change in Cuba and improve the lives of Cuban people."

Annia Cuba, 39, who came to Tampa from Cuba for years ago, applauded the provisions to ease family travel as a step in the right direction.

"A person wants to visit his family, and I don't think you should mix the political with the family ties," said Cuba, who works as a waitress at the Tampa restaurant Arco Iris.

KEY ISSUES

The bill passed Tuesday:

• Allows family members to visit relatives in Cuba once a year, rather than once every three years.

•Allows Cuban-Americans to spend $170 a day during visits with relatives once a year. Spending during family visits is now capped at $50 a day.

•Creates a new "general travel license" category for what the Obama administration says is "a narrow class" of U.S. businesses to go more freely to Cuba to sell agricultural goods and medical products.

•Requires that any businesses using the new general travel license to provide the Treasury Department advanced written notice outlining the purpose and scope of the planned travel.

•Requires business travelers upon their return from Cuba to submit a report outlining the activities conducted, including the persons with whom they met, the expenses incurred, and business conducted in Cuba.

Reporter Billy House can be reached at (202) 662-7675.

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