March 15, 2006

As a result of the last few months of hard work by church leaders and Cuba policy activists, on Wednesday, March 15, national religious leaders and a bipartisan group of House members and Senate staffers met with representatives from the Treasury and State Departments to argue for freer religious travel to Cuba. This bi-partisan move warranted front page attention in CQ Today, the daily that circulates among both houses of Congress to keep members abreast of important legislative activity.

“Some Republicans are bucking the Bush administration again…” begins the article by Shawn Zeller. “This time it involves the administration’s tightening of rules permitting religious groups to travel to Cuba. U.S. denominations say the travel is none of the government’s business . . . .” The administration began heavily interfering with the churches’ exchange with Cuba when Treasury’s re-definition of the previous policy resulted in “limiting the number of people who could travel and the number of trips per year.” Preceding Wednesday’s high-level meeting were letters of serious concern from both the Senate and House to Secretary John Snow of the Treasury Department. “‘We are disturbed that [Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control] appears to be defining what is and is not a religious organization … and that its operating definition appears to be prejudiced against recognized, mainstream national religious institutions,’ 17 senators said in their letter. The signers included Republicans Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, John E. Sununu of New Hampshire, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. Snow got another letter from 105 House members, including about a dozen Republicans.”

After the meeting, directed by Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), in which the overall message from the religious groups to Treasury and State was “we must have our licenses back,” Stephen McFarland of the State Department made a few commitments. These were understood by Congressman McGovern’s office to be that Mr. McFarland, after consulting with superiors at the State Department, would get back to Rep. McGovern in a “reasonable amount of time about next steps to facilitate the issuance of travel licenses so that these national religious bodies can continue to carry out their humanitarian mission and fellowship work with their Christian counterparts in Cuba . . . .” These would include “not [be] limited to a meeting with those State and Treasury officials who made the decision to change the licensing procedures that has resulted in the current untenable situation.” While there is still much more to be done to resolve this issue, the fact that the meeting occurred and that its tone was serious and productive can be counted as a budding success for Cuba policy activists.

Excerpts from
"Lawmakers Want to Keep Cuba Open for Visits by Church Groups." Congressional Quarterly Today. Shawn Zeller. March 15, 2006.