Here is a list of how members on the House Committee on Agriculture voted on H.R. 4645, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, landmark legislation championed by Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) that restores U.S. citizens' right to travel to Cuba, helps U.S. farmers sell their products to Cuba, and puts food on the tables of ordinary Cubans. The bill was passed out of the Ag Committee 25 to 20 with a favorable recommendation to the House on Wednesday, June 30.

Change in Our Interest:

Travel, Trade and Improved Relations with Cuba

The travel ban unilaterally disarms the United States, casting aside one of the greatest sources of American influence – unfettered contact with American society.The American approach toward the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, enshrined in the Helsinki accords and supported by Administrations of both parties, was to
encourage unrestricted travel so that we could share our ideas, values and culture. Download the PDF to read more of the information packet. 

Please print this packet and take it to your senators and representative in Congress! Click here to download (PDF).

U.S.-Cuba relations have been at a standstill for many years, but momentum for change is developing.

On March 11th, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control authorized a general license for family travel to Cuba and expanded the definition of “family”, repealing the 2004 family travel restrictions put into place by the Bush administration.

The 2009 Omnibus Appropriations eliminated funding enforcement of the 2004 regulations on family travel, as well as for “cash-in-advance” provision that applies to all commercial sales of agricultural and medical supplies to Cuba. The omnibus also authorizes travel, on a general license, for individuals marketing or selling agricultural and medical goods to the island.

This is the first Cuba legislation to hit a U.S. president’s desk in more than 8 years.

In order for the United States to play a constructive role as Cubans determine their future, we need to engage with the people of Cuba and the Cuban government, in a variety of ways.  These might include bilateral talks on issues of mutual concern, action to permit closer ties between Cuban Americans and their families on the island, unfettered agricultural trade, expanded academic exchange, greater contact between faith communities, and unrestricted travel for all Americans.

The information included in this congressional education packet documents how existing restrictions on travel and trade harm the national interests of the United States, and why reforming this policy is consistent with our values, our economic interests and efforts to improve the U.S. image abroad.

We encourage you to use this information to talk to your representatives about making this important change in U.S.-Cuba policy.  The two bills called the "Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act" are H.R. 874 in the House of Representatives and S. 428 in the Senate, ask your representative to Co-Sponsor these bills today.

Have you met or spoken with your Congressperson or his/her staff about Cuba recently? If you have report to us about the meeting so we can keep a record. 

 Below find a pdf and a word document of our standard questionnaire. You can e-mail, fax, or mail it to us.