Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006

TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 30, 2005)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

AMENDMENT OFFERED BY MR. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

(Mr. RANGEL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, right now in the Committee on Ways and Means there is a lot of discussion going on in reporting out a Central American Free Trade Agreement, which includes the Dominican Republic. This is part of an effort on the part of our great country to try to open up the doors and to make certain we give an opportunity to people throughout the world, but especially those in our own hemisphere to have an opportunity for a better quality of life.

This concept has been extended to Communist China, to North Korea, and to other countries. But here, we believe, in Cuba, it has nothing to do with anything except politics. It has nothing to do with the economy. It has everything to do with a small group of people in Florida. With all due respect to their strong feelings against Castro, it would seem to many of us that the best way to get rid of a dictator is to really open up the country; to be able to go to send remittances to families; to be able to travel; but certainly to be able to have an exchange of commodities between their country and ours.

It seems to me that American businesses are losing billions of dollars by not being able to trade. And who is being hurt? It is certainly not Castro. It is the poor people in the country. And if we cannot believe or bring ourselves to see that this policy for over 45 years has cost us in prestige around the world that respects international trade agreements; that has cost us in money; but I really believe it has cost us by allowing Castro to tell the people in Cuba that every economic crisis that they have is based on the United States' embargo.

As an American, if every country in the world has recognized this man, why can we not say that we recognize the Cuban people? Why can we not allow our business people to establish a relationship so that we are not blamed for what is happening in Cuba?

We have tried to do this before. The United Nations believes that we are in violation of international law. The CARICOM nations in the Caribbean believe that we are violating the law. The World Trade Organization certainly cannot support what we are doing. In many areas it is considered an act of war to surround a nation and not allow ships to go in or to penalize a country.

Most importantly, however, this is an un-American concept. We should not be afraid that any small island nation can take away from the strong deep-seated principles of democracy that we enjoy here.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. OBEY. I yield to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate what was pointed out by the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee). I have no idea why the gentleman from Florida would refer to the victim of this atrocity that was committed in Cuba as being black. I do not see what that adds to the discussion as to whether or not as a free country we should not continue to respect international trade. I think that is what we are trying to do.

We are trying to say the best way to get after dictators is to make certain that we have communication between nations. The best way to have people to understand what democracy is all about is to demonstrate what democracy is about by allowing Americans to go where they want to go when they want to go, to allow Americans to send money to whomever they want to send money to in Cuba.

I truly believe all of the things that have been said, we would all agree. I believe that Saddam Hussein was a terrible man; but I do not believe we had a right to have a preemptive strike against a country. What we are trying to talk about is the value of trade, the value of countries communicating with each other.

Who is being penalized? No embargo works when only one country is perpetrating the embargo. If all of the countries in the world are trading with Cuba, the best we do is lose money and restrict ourselves from showing that when it comes to competition, quality goods, farm goods, that America is the best. But when people say they do not want to offend a handful of people in Cuba, and therefore we put an embargo against an independent country, it is not the democratic, American thing to do.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://thomas.loc.gov

Source