Reply #26: Senate defies Bush on Cuban travel [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Senate defies Bush on Cuban travel

Veto likely after lawmakers OK unrestricted travel to island



U.S. travel industry executives take a ride in a classic Buick followed by others through Havana on Oct. 19. The executives defied a U.S. crackdown by visiting the island to study its future business potential.


By Mary Murray
NBC NEWS

HAVANA, Oct. 23 — Let Americans travel to Cuba. That was the message delivered by the U.S. Senate on Thursday when it defied President Bush by backing legislation meant to end the ban on travel to the Caribbean island.

ECHOING A HOUSE vote last month, the Senate voted 59-36 to cut off all government money now used to enforce travel restrictions.

The measure is part of a $90 billion Transportation and Treasury Department financing bill, which the White House has promised to veto if it included any language relaxing the decades-old Cuba sanctions.

Earlier this month, President Bush tightened the travel restrictions as a way to “hasten the arrival of a new, free, democratic Cuba” by stanching the flow of American dollars to the Castro government. That policy has put the administration on a collision course with both House and Senate members from agricultural states whose constituents are anxious to capture the Cuban market. (snip/...)

http://msnbc.com/news/984224.asp?0sl=-12