Florida Rep. Breaks Ranks on Cuba
HAVANA TIMES, July 23 — Rep. Kathy Castor, a US congresswoman from Tampa, has broken ranks with other Florida legislators and became the first from her state’s delegation to sign on to the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act.
The bill, HR874, has 178 sponsors but has yet to make it out of committee and on to the House floor for debate and voting. The law would lift the nearly half century prohibition on visiting Cuba the US government has maintained on its citizens.
“Now is the time to remove the obstacles and hassles that have prevented Cuban Americans without direct family ties and other Floridians from traveling to Cuba, and for our region to reap the benefits that freedom of travel can bring,” Castor told the St. Petersburg Times.
Another bill to lift the travel ban (HR4645) and also make farm product sales to Cuba easier is pending in the full House, after it passed the House Agriculture Committee earlier this month.
No good deed goes unpunished. Especially in the state of Florida.
Leaving aside any discussion of the merits of the proposal, it is perhaps appropriate to note that there is a wealthy constituency in Tampa for Rep. Castor’s support. For decades – including I believe from even before the Revolution – there was an annual boat regatta from Tampa to Havana. As many as 500 yboats participated. When President Bush tightened the travel ban the regatta was stopped.