Cuba: U.S. Restrictions on Travel and Remittances

Abstract

Restrictions on travel to Cuba have been a key and often contentious component in U.S. efforts to isolate the communist government of Fidel Castro for much of the past 40 years. Over time, there have been numerous changes to the restrictions, and for five years, from 1977 until 1982, there were no restrictions on travel to Cuba. Under the Bush Administration, enforcement of U.S. restrictions on Cuba travel has increased, and restrictions on travel and on private remittances to Cuba have been tightened. In March 2003, the Administration eliminated travel for people-to-people educational exchanges unrelated to academic course work. In June 2004, the Administration further restricted family and educational travel and eliminated the category of fully-hosted travel. At the same time, remittances were further restricted so that they could only be sent to the remitter's immediate family. In the first session of the 109th Congress, there was significant legislative attention to the issue of Cuba travel. On June 30, 2005, the House rejected three amendments to H.R. 3058, the FY2006 Transportation appropriations bill, that would have eased Cuba travel restrictions: H.Amdt. 420 (Davis) on family travel; H.Amdt. 422 (Lee) on educational travel; and H.Amdt. 424 (Rangel) on the overall embargo. During June 29, 2005, consideration of H.R. 2361, the FY2006 Interior Appropriations bill, the Senate rejected a motion to suspend the rules with respect to S.Amdt. 1059 (Dorgan), which would have allowed family travel under a general license for humanitarian reasons; the amendment was then ruled out of order. Several other legislative initiatives have been introduced in the 109th Congress that would ease restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba. Two bills -- S. 894 (Enzi) and H.R. 1814 (Flake) -- would specifically lift overall restrictions on travel to Cuba.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 16, 2006
Accession Number
ADA487710

Entities

People

  • Mark P. Sullivan

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
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DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Commerce
  • Congress
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Department Of State
  • Families (Human)
  • Foreign Policy
  • Foreign Relations
  • Governments
  • Homeland Security
  • Human Rights
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Law
  • National Security
  • Political Systems
  • Students
  • United States

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