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June 14, 2006

Educational exchange with Cuba has been increasingly under attack by the Bush Administration and hard-line members of Congress. Now there is an opportunity to fight back! Call your representative in the House immediately and ask them to support Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s (D-CA) amendment on educational travel. The amendment is expected to reach the House floor within the next few hours. Representative Lee’s amendment to the Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Bill would end the restrictions on educational travel to Cuba.

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be directly connected to your representative’s office, or to learn who your member of Congress is, log onto http://www.house.gov/.

In 2004, President Bush’s “Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba,” was convened to help hasten regime change on the island. The Commission recommended – among other harsh restrictions - curtailing educational travel to the island. Since these new restrictions were enacted, over 700 universities have been forced to shut down their educational travel programs to Cuba; this has resulted in an unprecedented loss in opportunities for educational exchange between U.S. and Cuban students.

Call your member of Congress immediately to tell them you support educational travel to Cuba and that they should vote in favor of Representative Lee’s educational travel amendment. Tell them educational travel to the island promotes positive exchange and understanding between the Cuban and U.S. people.

To see how your member of Congress voted last year on educational travel, log onto the LAWG website at: http://www.lawg.org/docs/ed-travel.pdf. Scroll to the end of this message for current restrictions on educational travel to Cuba.

Current Restrictions:

  • Only undergraduate and graduate degree granting institutions may apply for licenses for educational travel;
  • all educational travel programs must be at least one semester long; and
  • only students enrolled full time at the degree granting institution may travel to Cuba on the educational travel license.