July 16, 2003

Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) will introduce an amendment to the Agriculture Appropriations bill tomorrow which would require the Department of the Treasury to make it easier for Americans to travel to Cuba for the purpose of facilitating US agricultural sales to Cuba.

Senator Dorgan’s aide contacted us today and asked for support from our grassroots activists: people like you. Your senator will be debating this amendment tomorrow in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Please call your Senator’s office today, July 16th, to ask them to support this amendment. Use the following pitch:

“As a constituent who is interested in improved relations between Cuba and the US, I urge you to support Senator Dorgan’s amendment to the Agriculture Appropriations Bill July 17th, which would make it easier for Americans to travel to Cuba to promote American agricultural sales to Cuba. It’s legal to sell food to Cuba and our farmers should not be blocked from doing so.”

The following senators are on the Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee and need to be contacted:

Bennett UT—(202) 224-5444
Cochran MS—(202) 224-5054
Specter PA—(202) 224-4254
Bond MO—(202) 224-5721
McConnell KY—(202) 224-2541
Burns MT—(202) 224-2644
Craig ID—(202) 224-2752
Brownback KS—(202) 224-6521
Kohl WI—(202) 224-5653
Harkin IA—(202) 224-3254
Feinstein CA—(202) 224-3841
Durbin IL—(202) 224-2152
Johnson SD(202) 224-5842
Landrieu LA(202) 224-5824

For more talking points see the justifications below, as well as the text of the amendment. Thanks for your invaluable help. Please let us know if you make contact and get a response from your senator’s office.
Sincerely,
Mavis Anderson
Philip Schmidt
Latin America Working Group
T: 202/546-7010 F: 202/543-7647
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The following is the text of the amendment followed by justifications:

AMENDMENT intended to be proposed by Mr. DORGAN

At the appropriate place in the bill, add the following:
Viz.
Sec._____ . TRAVEL RELATING TO THE COMMERCIAL SALE OF AGRICULTURAL AND MEDICAL GOODS. B Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of the Treasury shall promulgate regulations under which the travel-related transactions listed in paragraph (c) of section 515.560 of title 31, Code of Federal Regulations, are authorized by a general license for travel to, from, or within Cuba for the purposes of conferring, exhibiting, marketing, planning, sales negotiation, accompanied delivery, expediting, facilitating or servicing agricultural and medical sales permitted under the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (as enacted by section 1(a) of Public Law 106-387 and as amended).

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Justification:

Despite the law Congress passed to legalize agricultural sales to Cuba, the Administration has thrown roadblocks in the way of such sales by often refusing to issue the licenses that people need to go to Cuba.

The amendment requires OFAC to authorize a general license for all travel related to selling agricultural goods to Cuba.

A general license means that you do not have to ask OFAC’s permission to go to Cuba. So long as you are performing an authorized activity you can go.

Cuban Americans visiting relatives have a general license to visit Cuba. So do journalists, government officials, and amateur athletes participating in organized competitions.

This would allow people who want to sell farm goods to go to Cuba to travel under a general license just like those other groups. Now people who want to sell farm goods must obtain a specific license from OFAC before going to Cuba. Often it takes months for OFAC to process applications for such licenses. Often OFAC refuses to issue the license.

Here are two examples why this is necessary:

Last year, OFAC refused to issue a license for state Farm Bureaus and
other agricultural organizations to hold a US-Cuba Agricultural Trade
Conference in Cuba.

Also OFAC just refused to give a license to a group that wants to
organize a U.S. agricultural fair in Havana this year. In 2001, the group
did get a license for such a fair and it resulted in almost $100 million in
sales contracts for US farmers.