On July 17th, the full Senate Appropriations Committee passed—by voice vote—an amendment offered by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) which would make it easier for exporters to travel to Cuba for the purpose of arranging sales of agricultural products. Thanks to those of you whose senators serve on the Agriculture Subcommittee and who responded to our message last week requesting calls. Your actions had an impact, as the amendment was not considered controversial by the senators on this committee and passed easily. FYI, a list of members of the Senate Appropriations Committee follows this message. Because the amendment passed on a voice vote, we do not have a tally of how senators voted. Calls to Senator Dorgan to thank him for his amendment would be appropriate (202.224.2551).

The amendment would allow exporters to travel to Cuba without obtaining a specific license granting permission from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Senator Dorgan offered the amendment after many companies were denied a license to travel to Cuba to make deals for food sales. These sales, made on a cash-only basis, have been legal since 2000.

The future of this amendment, while hopeful, is still unclear. It is attached to the Agriculture Appropriations bill, which will next be debated on the Senate floor. It is quite likely that pro-embargo senators will try to strip the amendment from the bill. We believe, however, that the amendment has strong enough support to survive these attempts. We’ll be calling on you for help when this bill reaches the floor of the Senate.

Next the amendment must survive the conference committee, where the House and Senate reconcile their two versions of the Agriculture Appropriations bill. The amendment will face its biggest challenge here, as the House did not pass a similar amendment on its version (House rules do not allow for this kind of an amendment on an appropriations bill). This will give embargo supporters some traction when they argue for removing the amendment. We must be ready to put pressure on supporters not to cave in and allow the amendment to be removed.

Thank you again for your work last week to help the Dorgan amendment through the committee. Be prepared for a similar effort this fall when the bill is reconciled in conference: we’ll need your help more than ever then.

Sincerely,

Mavis Anderson
Philip Schmidt
LAWG
www.lawg.org

Senate Appropriations Committee

Republicans:
Ted Stevens, AK, Chair
Thad Cochran, MS (Agriculture subcommittee)
Arlen Specter, PA (Agriculture subcommittee)
Pete Domenici, NM
Christopher Bond, MO (Agriculture subcommittee)
Mitch McConnell, KY (Agriculture subcommittee)
Conrad Burns, MT (Agriculture subcommittee)
Richard Shelby, AL
Judd Gregg, NH
Robert Bennett, UT (Agriculture subcommittee chair)
Ben Nighthorse Campbell, CO
Larry Craig, ID (Agriculture subcommittee)
Kay Bailey Hutchison, TX
Mike DeWine, OH
Sam Brownback, KS (Agriculture subcommittee)

Democrats:
Robert Byrd, WV, Ranking Member
Daniel Inouye, HI
Ernest Hollings, SC
Patrick Leahy, VT
Tom Harkin, IA (Agriculture subcommittee)
Barbara Mikulski, MD
Harry Reid, NV
Herbert Kohl, WI (Agriculture subcommittee ranking member)
Patty Murray, WA
Byron Dorgan, ND (Agriculture subcommittee)
Dianne Feinstein, CA (Agriculture subcommittee)
Richard Durbin, IL (Agriculture subcommittee)
Tim Johnson, SD (Agriculture subcommittee)
Mary Landrieu, LA (Agriculture subcommittee)