DeLauro: Congress Will Try Lifting Ban on Cuba Travel

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said that the new government led by President-elect Obama and Democrats in Congress will reverse the decades-old policy of isolating Cuba.

“It’s now been 10 U.S. presidents who have overseen an embargo that continues to fail at its intended purpose of changing the government and the economic system in Cuba,” DeLauro said Tuesday on a conference call about U.S.-Cuba policy.

She added that Obama as a candidate committed to allowing unlimited Cuban-American family travel and remittances to Cuba and to engage in a strong diplomacy with a “post-Fidel government.”

DeLauro added that Congress would seek to go further than Obama and allow all Americans to travel to Cuba without without restrictions.
“And it’s my belief that this will be an early goal of members of Congress and myself and others who believe such action would really bring about the kind of people-to-people interaction that can change the dynamic of Cuba and U.S.-Cuba relations,” she said.

DeLauro appeared on the conference call with other supporters of U.S. engagement with the communist country, including the Cuba Study Group and the New America Foundation.

President Bush continued a U.S. economic embargo on Cuba and has staunchly opposed diplomatic relations with the Castro regime.