The movement is growing. The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act is gaining support in the House and the Senate. Please take a minute to support the brand new End the Travel Ban Facebook page.
We've been keeping up the pressure on Congress for months to end the travel ban on Cuba. The "Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act" legislation introduced in the House and Senate this spring now has more co-sponsors than any Cuba bill in memory.
Mark your calendars! The end is in sight, but we need one more BIG PUSH to make the co-sponsor list jump.
On April 2, Representatives Bill Delahunt (D-MA) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ), along with Representatives Farr (D-CA), McGovern (D-MA), Emerson (R-MO), DeLauro (D-CT), Chaffetz (new member, R-UT), Lee (D-CA), Berry (D-AR), and Edwards (D-MD), plus important leaders within the Cuban-American community, participated in a block-buster press conference announcing HR 874, the House companion to the Senate travel bill, S 428. The Cuban Americans hit it out of the park, leaving no doubt about the support for "travel for all" from the Cuban-American community. We wish you could have been there.
by Mavis Anderson and Paulo Gusmaoon June 03, 2009
We're soooo close! We are within reach of changing "travel-to-Cuba" policy. Now we just need YOU to get us one more co-sponsor. Will you? There are specific members that we need; read on for details. Within the last few short weeks we've seen some promising developments in U.S.-Cuba policy coming from the White House - on travel and remittances for Cuban Americans and on some limited diplomatic re-engagement. This is good news, and we hope to see these changes continue in a positive direction.
But, as you probably know, only an act of Congress can actually end the full travel ban. That's why we are asking you to contact your members of Congress AGAIN today using a new advocacy tool that presents you with either a letter thanking your member of Congress for cosponsoring the "Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act"; or, if they have not yet cosponsored the bill, the letter urges them to do so.
Contact all your members of Congress at once here!
On Tuesday, March 31 at noon, Senators Dorgan (D-ND), Enzi (R-WY), and Dodd (D-CT), along
with representatives of the American Farm Bureau, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
and Human Rights Watch, publicly announced S. 428, "The Freedom to Travel to
Cuba Act" in a press conference so well attended that reporters were standing in
the halls. LAWG was there capturing the excitement of the moment and
representing all of you.
The White House issued a statement today that lifted all restrictions
on transactions related to the travel and remittances of family members
to Cuba. Check our blog for details and comments. Here is the White
House fact sheet on today's action.
On March 11, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) posted a new regulation, plus a guidance letter outlining how the provisions in the FY 09 omnibus spending bill would be implemented, as related to Cuban-American family travel and ag sales. See the pdf containing the regulation and the guidance letter here.
This is big news for all of us that have been fighting for change in Cuba policy; we should celebrate, and our job is not completed.
Action Center
